15 Big-Time Celebrities With HIV

Getting a positive HIV diagnosis can be a devastating and life-changing experience, even for the rich and famous. However, thanks to advances in modern medicine, it’s completely possible to control the progress of the disease and prevent the onset of full-blown AIDS. 

For inspiration about living with this disease, check out these 15 well-known celebrities with HIV and how they’ve coped with their diagnosis.

HIV and AIDS in Focus

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a virus that attacks your immune system, making it more difficult for your body to fight off infections, diseases, and even HIV itself. The most common transmission method of HIV is through sexual contact, but it’s also transmissible through blood transmission by sharing needles or from mother to child during pregnancy and early childhood. 

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is the disease that arises from an HIV infection. AIDS develops when your body’s immune system is sufficiently enough weakened that it can’t protect itself against infections.

Symptoms of HIV and AIDS

The symptoms of HIV and AIDS vary depending on the phase of the infection. 

When you first get infected with HIV, you’ll develop a primary infection (also known as acute HIV) that resembles the flu except that it lasts for several weeks. Common symptoms of acute HIV infection include: 

• Muscle aches
• Fever
• Headache
• Weight loss
• Swollen lymph glands
• Skin rash
• Night sweats
• Persistent cough
• Joint pain 

Most people experience very mild symptoms during this acute phase, and many people don’t even notice their symptoms. However, it’s useful to learn the connection between an STD and night sweats, as it’s a surprisingly common symptom of early HIV infection. 

Before developing AIDS, many people experience mild infections and signs of symptomatic HIV infection. These symptoms are due to your immune system’s inability to fight off relatively mild infections. Common symptoms include: 

• Frequent oral yeast infections
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Shingles
• Pneumonia
• Diarrhea 

AIDS is the final stage of HIV infection and occurs when your immune system is so damaged that it can’t fight off infections. 

• Signs of AIDS include: 
• Recurring fever
• Chronic diarrhea
• Persistent fatigue
• Weakness
• Swollen lymph glands
• Skin rashes
• Persistent oral lesions or white spots
• Development of Kaposi sarcoma

Precautions

Thanks to the increase in HIV awareness, it’s possible to take several precautions to prevent HIV infections, even if coming into contact with HIV-positive individuals.

Protection During Sex

If you plan on engaging in sexual activity, taking certain precautions can lower your chances of getting HIV from an HIV-positive partner. These safeguards can include: 

• Choosing sexual activities with lower HIV-transmission risk, such as oral sex
• Using condoms correctly
• Abstaining from sexual activity completely
• Encouraging an HIV-positive partner to get antiretroviral treatment. Keeping a very low viral load makes transmitting the disease between partners almost impossible. Learn more about viral load and what it means for HIV progression and HIV transmission.
• Testing for STDs using Rapid STD Testing’s comprehensive 10-panel test, as having other STDs increases your risk of getting HIV.

Protection During Drug Injections

According to the CDC, sharing needles accounts for 7% of all U.S. HIV transmissions. Needle sharing creates blood-to-blood contact and a high HIV risk. The best way for drug users to avoid contracting HIV from drug injections is to use clean, sterile needles and syringes each time.

Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)

Post-exposure prophylaxis refers to medication that can prevent HIV after potential exposure to the virus. It’s vital to start the treatment within 72 hours of the possible exposure to prevent the disease.

Living with HIV

Newly Diagnosed

While it’s impossible to get rid of HIV completely, the goal is to keep HIV levels so low that they are almost undetectable, which allows HIV-positive individuals to lead healthy lives while protecting their partners. A rapid STD test can help you keep an eye on your load.

HIV Treatments

The most common treatment for HIV is a class of drugs called antiretrovirals. These drugs keep the virus under control and prevent symptoms or disease transmission.

Healthy Living with HIV

Keeping healthy can help you avoid opportunistic infections or the effect of HIV on your metabolism. Staying healthy includes sticking to a healthy eating plan, having a regular exercise routine, and cutting out smoking and drug use.

Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission

Mother-to-child HIV transmission can be devastating to both mother and newborn baby. Not only can the mother transmit the virus to her unborn child during pregnancy, but she also carries the risk of transmitting HIV during childbirth or breastfeeding. HIV treatments can reduce this risk dramatically.

Protecting Others

The best way to protect current and future sexual partners is to get HIV treatment and keep your viral load as low as possible. Rapid Testing’s same-day STD testing service can measure your viral load to get up-to-date results. If you can’t maintain an undetectable viral load, encourage your partners to take PrEP and use condoms every time you have sex.

Stigma and Mental Health

Many HIV-positive individuals suffer from depression, but the good news is that depression and other mental health issues are treatable with a combination of therapy and medicine.

Famous Celebrities Who Were Diagnosed with HIV

If you’re looking for ways to cope while living with HIV, these celebrities who lived with HIV should greatly inspire us all.

Magic Johnson

Earvin “Magic” Johnson started his famed basketball career in 1979, earning a reputation as the best point guard of all time in 13 seasons and several NBA victories with the Lakers. 

Johnson received his HIV diagnosis in 1991, forcing him to retire from basketball. He was notable for being one of the few heterosexual men to contract HIV at a time when the public saw it as an exclusively homosexual risk. 

Johnson is currently on several antiretroviral treatments and has been a vocal advocate for HIV activism.

Greg Louganis

Champion Olympic diver Greg Louganis earned four Olympic gold medals. Louganis revealed his HIV status in a 1995 Barbara Walters interview. He had known his HIV diagnosis seven years earlier but didn’t reveal his status due to the disease's stigma. After revealing his diagnosis and his homosexuality, Greg Louganis became a vocal LGBTQ advocate and remains committed to showing the possibility of normal living with HIV to this day.

Chuck Panozzo

Chuck Panozzo is the long-time bassist for the legendary rock band Styx. Panozzo received his HIV-positive diagnosis in 1991 and developed AIDS in 1998. He immediately started treatment and spent the next two years fighting for his life. In 2001, Panozzo announced that he was gay and was living with HIV. The musician started advocating for gay rights and HIV activism. He released an autobiography in 2007.

Charlie Sheen

Charlie Sheen started his acting career in the 1980s with films such as Young Guns and The Three Musketeers. He’s most famous for his award-nominated role in the TV series Two and a Half Men from 2003-11. 

In 2011, Sheen received a positive HIV diagnosis, though he did not reveal it until 2015. His announcement resulted in a massive increase in online HIV-related searches and over-the-counter testing kit purchases, sometimes called the “Sheen Effect.” Shen remains on antiretroviral therapy today. 

Alexis Arquette

Alexis Arquette was one of the trailblazers for LGBTQ rights and trans activism and a notable film actor in The Wedding Singer and Pulp Fiction. She also starred in a 2007 documentary that focused on her transition from Robert to Alexis and her struggles with gender identity. 

She was intensely private about her health concerns, having received her HIV diagnosis as a teenager. Alexis Arquette refused treatment for most of her life and passed away from a heart attack at age 47 in 2016. 

Rudolf Nureyev

Legendary Soviet ballet performer Rudolf Nureyev ruled the ballet world from the 1960s-1980s. He dramatically defected to the West in Paris in 1961 and joined first the Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas and later the Royal Ballet in London. In 1983, he became the director of the Paris Opera Ballet.   

Nureyev died in 1993 due to complications from AIDS. According to his doctor, Nureyev knew he was HIV-positive in 1984 but was afraid that revealing this would cause some countries, such as the U.S., to deny him entrance.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov, an American professor of biochemistry at Boston University, was best known as a pioneering and prolific science fiction writer. Asimov also wrote mysteries, non-fiction, and fantasy until he died in 1992. 

Asimov contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during triple bypass surgery in 1983 but kept quiet about his HIV status due to worry that anti-AIDS stigma might affect his family. Asimov’s widow revealed his status in 2002.

Amanda Blake

Amanda Blake was an actress best known for her long-standing role in Gunsmoke, a TV western series that ran for 20 years. Blake, an avid animal rights activist, retired from acting in 1974 to focus on her ranch and animals, including a pet lion. While initial media reports listed the cause of her 1989 death as cancer, medical records later revealed she died due to AIDS-related complications. 

Popular Celebrities Who Lost Their Battle with AIDS

The advent of modern antiretrovirals has allowed many celebrities with HIV to live full and exciting lives. However, before scientific advances regarding the disease, celebrities with HIV had it much harder, and many died of AIDS. It’s important to note their struggle in promoting HIV awareness and fighting against the stigma that so many people still face.

Freddie Mercury

Probably one of the best-known celebrities with HIV, Freddie Mercury was the cornerstone of the rock band Queen. 

Mercury received his diagnosis several years before his death but ignored his symptoms despite family and friends urging him to seek treatment. HIV still suffered from the stigma of being a “gay” disease and a death sentence, and Mercury was concerned about the negative press his family and friends would receive. He eventually announced his HIV status 24 hours before his death in 1991, catalyzing a massive wave of activism and HIV awareness.

Pedro Zamora

Unlike many other celebrities with HIV in the 1990s, Pedro Zamora was open about his diagnosis and gay sexual orientation and earned his fame through activism and advocacy. He won hearts and minds when he appeared in front of Congress to testify about AIDS education and later appeared on the third season of The Real World San Francisco. 

Zamora discovered he was HIV-positive when he was 17 during a routine blood test before donating blood. He succumbed to an AIDS-related illness in 1994, just one day after the final episode of The Real World aired.

Rock Hudson

Rock Hudson was a prolific heartthrob and film actor during Hollywood’s Golden Age and received an Academy Award nomination for his role in the 1956 film Giant. 

Hudson concealed his gay sexual orientation for most of his career, often arranging fake dates with starlets and eventually marrying Phyllis Gates. Hudson received his HIV diagnosis in 1984 and was one of the first celebrities with HIV to reveal their status publicly in 1985. He died in his home two weeks later.

Gia Carangi

Gia Carangi was one of the first supermodels. Her brief modeling career beginning at 17, in the late 1970s, erupted and brought her much fame until her untimely turn to heroin addiction in her early 20s. She graced the covers of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, as well as being the “It girl” for many notable fashion houses. 

Gia Garangi was notable for being one of the first well-known women diagnosed with AIDS, which she most likely contracted due to her extensive drug use. She died in 1986 at age 26 of AIDS-related complications after several years of living a rough and tragic life in obscurity.

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was a fiercely political artist and LGBTQ activist best known for his work on the AIDS epidemic. He used his art to amplify information about the disease and social topics such as drug abuse and LGBTQ rights. 

Haring was diagnosed with HIV in 1987 and developed AIDS a year later. He died from complications from the virus in 1990 but left behind a Foundation to fund other LGBTQ organizations.

Liberace

Liberace (born Władziu Valentino Liberace in 1919) was a renowned showman and pianist whose career spanned decades beginning in the 1940s. During the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid entertainer globally but is better known for his excessive lifestyle and flamboyance. 

Liberace died in 1987 due to AIDS-related complications, though Liberace’s personal physician attributed the cause of death to anemia in an attempt to hide the actual cause of death.

Anthony Perkins

Anthony Perkins was an American film and stage actor, director, and singer best known for his villainous role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. He contracted HIV in 1986 in his 50s but kept the diagnosis a secret until he died in 1992. Unlike other celebrities with HIV who kept their status a secret, Perkins announced the fact that he had AIDS several weeks before his death.

Robert Reed

Robert Reed was a well-recognized actor who received three Primetime Emmy Awards during his career. In addition to being father Mike Brady in the popular TV series The Brady Bunch, Reed also starred in several more serious series, including the miniseries Roots. 

While doctors originally attributed Reed’s death to colon cancer, the death certificate also revealed his HIV-positive status. Although the star did not have AIDS at the time of his death, his HIV status may have contributed to his death.

Ryan White

Ryan White was notable for being one of the first children to acquire AIDS (at age 13, in 1984), and he became the first poster child for HIV awareness. He contracted HIV from a contaminated blood treatment for his hemophilia. His school refused to readmit him due to his condition which led to prolonged lawsuits. 

White lived for several years after his diagnosis, which he used to the fullest as an HIV activist. He died in 1990, but his legacy lives on in the Ryan White CARE Act that provided funding for the care and treatment of individuals affected by HIV.

Live Your Life to the Fullest, Regardless of Your HIV Status

Thanks to advances in modern medicine, an HIV diagnosis is no longer a death sentence. However, knowing your HIV status allows you to protect your partners and take the necessary steps to keep AIDs at bay. You can discover your HIV status by ordering an STD test panel or visiting your local Rapid STD Testing testing center today. Call us at (866) 872-1888.