New Faces of HIV/AIDS

One of the hardest parts of the women's journeys has been telling their family that they are infected, they say. "My children found out in a very sad way. One of their friends called them on the phone to say that they had seen Philippe's photograph on the news and he had been arrested for spreading AIDS or HIV. My children knew that I had dated this person for a long time," Megan says. "I felt like I had shorted them because of my misjudgment of some idiot that I was dating, [and] now they might lose their mother."

Tricia says telling her parents was especially hard. "I come from a little bitty country town, raised on a farm. My parents are over 80," she says. "I went home and I just grabbed them by the hand and I said, 'Your daughter made a big mistake.' My daddy just shook his head and he said, 'Oh no, not my little girl.' It broke my heart to see them so sad."