Narrating medicine: Experiences of HIV treatment and prevention

For almost four decades, the comprehensive human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) clinical research program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has assessed effective treatment and prevention options for children and youth living with and without HIV.  While scientific publications catalog the results of the program’s studies, the impact is best described by the patients themselves.

Listening to and honoring the lived experiences of patients is an important part of medical care. The practice, called narrative medicine, is a reminder to center the humanity that might otherwise get lost. Narrative medicine integrates the patient and their human experience into the folds of medical care and clinical research.

They created three illustrations from three different people's stories. One of them is the perspective of a person involved in the clinical trial of a long-acting antiretroviral therapy for HIV:

An artist’s exploration of self-love and expression

A poet and artist, this creative decided to participate in a clinical trial he felt could change history and help people living with HIV. 

The ongoing multicenter clinical trial studies the longest-acting antiretroviral treatment regimen — two broadly neutralizing antibodies (teropavimab and zinlirvimab) delivered intravenously (IV) and an HIV capsid inhibitor (lenacapavir) injected under the skin, all three administered every six months. While the trial is ongoing and this HIV treatment option is not currently available as a standard of care, he has shown a positive response to the treatment regimen.