When Garth Parkhill was diagnosed with HIV when he was just 24, the treatments were caustic and the stigma suffocating - 22 years later, he takes one pill a day and lives a normal life.
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Garth said discovered he had the disease during a routine check-up.
"It was a shock... I thought I had a cold and it was just a doctor around the corner. He said should I just do an HIV test and I hadn't had one in a while so I thought why not?" he said.
"I think he was more freaked out when it came back positive then I was."
According to the AIDS Action Council, there are between 400 and 500 people living with HIV in the ACT, although it is estimated up to another 10 per cent might have it and be unaware.
Acting executive director Philippa Moss said the number of new HIV infections was still rising in Canberra and across Australia.
"It's definitely frustrating that the message isn't getting out. People are becoming complacent and taking risks," she said.
Ms Moss said that after a difficult few years, the AIDS Council was going back to its roots to join the community in tackling the growing number of infections.
"We are 30, 40 years on [from the original campaigns] and people become complacent, and that's potentially why there's an increase [in infections]," she said.
The AIDS Action Council of the ACT, which held its annual general meeting on Wednesday night, is holding ACT Testing Month in November to encourage people to take care of their sexual health.
It provides assistance to anyone whose lives have been touched by HIVS/AIDS while also using public awareness campaigns to promote safe sex, among other things.
Through an HIV specialist and counselling with the Aids Action Council of NSW, Garth said he came to terms with his condition and got treatment, although some of the early drugs he took for the virus were incredibly harsh.
"[AZT] was awful, that made me quite sick. Nausea, really shocking headaches [and] it seemed to react really badly with food, some of which I still can't eat now," he said.
Garth said he was concerned when he saw the number of new HIV infections rising year on year.
"People's attitude towards HIV have changed, people don't see it as a life-threatening issue. I think people are quite blase about it in a way, which is not great," he said.
"The only way we're going to get on top of it is if people practise safe sex, treat early, treat regularly and get on treatment quickly."
Now 22 years after he was diagnosed, Garth said HIV had barely any effect on his life, as if it were any other mild chronic disease.
"I take one pill a day... so it [doesn't] impact me, the biggest thing that does is there is a certain sort of stigma and people react to that. I'm very healthy, I've had no health issues," he said.
"People don't understand ... there are still a lot of misconceptions about it."
ACT Testing Month runs until December 1 and testing locations are available from the AIDS Action Council website.
For more information, visit www.aidsaction.org.au/act-testing-month/
