Young Adults in their 20's who have lived with HIV their whole life.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer

Young adults who have lived their whole lives with HIV

Sanders, of West Philadelphia, belongs to a rare group; he was born HIV-positive when he was perinatally infected via his mother either during pregnancy and delivery or breastfeeding.


At the time, HIV was a death sentence. Sanders and several thousand other infected babies weren't expected to live very long.

But thanks to more than two dozen drugs, the oldest babies are now reaching 30, and living into uncharted territory.

Their challenges are daunting. Along with homework, puberty, and just surviving the rough streets of Philadelphia, they've dealt with losing sick parents and friends, disclosing their status, engaging in sex with uninfected partners, and enduring medical side effects with unknown consequences.

Sanders, now 24, has experienced it all. "My main goal is to get people to talk about HIV," said Sanders, a brand rep for a clothing line and peer educator for iChoose2live, a Philadelphia-based youth program that encourages HIV awareness and career building. "I want to destigmatize it."

More than a million people are living with HIV in the United States, mostly contracted from sex or drugs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Just 1 percent got HIV perinatally or through the bleeding disease hemophilia and blood transfusions.

In 2007, an estimated 7,757 people were living in the 37 states reporting to the CDC who had been diagnosed with perinatally transmitted HIV before age 13.

In Philadelphia, where the overall HIV infection rate is five times the national average, at least 272 current residents were perinatally infected, though officials say the figure could be far higher.