When a 50-year-old Japanese man was diagnosed in 1995 with HIV, he decided to attend an HIV awareness group to learn more about the virus and what options he had for treatment.
He sat through an entire meeting surrounded by Japanese doctors, volunteers and other HIV-positive men and women, but he could not bring himself to talk about his condition. He was terrified of being exposed.
The man, who wishes to have his name withheld, subsequently moved to the United States and has been living in Los Angeles since 2005.