Retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron remembers a time when an HIV diagnosis was effectively a death sentence — when gay men were dying “in their tens of thousands” and doctors could offer little more than palliative care

The National Briefing · Mar 2, 2026 · 9m

Retired Constitutional Court justice Edwin Cameron remembers a time when an HIV diagnosis was effectively a death sentence — when gay men were dying “in their tens of thousands” and doctors could offer little more than palliative care.

Today, at 73, Cameron is living proof of the life-saving power of antiretroviral therapy (ARVs). But his medical chart — three heart stents, high blood pressure and atrial fibrillation — also reflects what researchers are now uncovering: people living with HIV are ageing faster and developing chronic illnesses at far higher rates…