Jennifer Jako

She studied fine art at Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Plastiques in Monte Carlo, Monaco in 1991 and the Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) from 1993-1995 in Portland. After an initial six months of sexual activity at age 18, she became abstinent.

Jako married Christopher John Bleiler in 2001. They had a child in 2005, through artificial home self-insemination. In 2006, their daughter was born via vaginal delivery. At nine years old (2017), her daughter is HIV-negative. Jako continued her strict adherence to a HAART regimen during pregnancy and did not breastfeed her daughter.

She found out she was HIV positive at age 18 from a routine Pap test appointment at which a nurse encouraged her to get tested for HIV as she had had six partners. Jako did not consider herself to be at risk for HIV nor Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and took the test out of social responsibility. When diagnosed, she was told she would be lucky to live to age 25. During her studies at PNCA, she began work with another HIV-positive woman, Rebecca Guberman, on a documentary film, Blood Lines, which would later be broadcast on MTV as True Life: It Could Be You from 1999– 2004. Production assistance came from the Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media, Wieden & Kennedy and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. It is now distributed as an educational video. An updated version of Blood Lines was released in 2015.

Jako took AZT for two weeks when first diagnosed, but became so ill that she stopped taking the drug. Afterward, she remained drug-naïve until 1997. After extensive research and pressured by a failing immune system, Jako began a regimen of Nevirapine, 3TC, and d4T. In 1998, she replaced d4T in her regimen with Abacavir because d4T caused severe side effects. Jako has permanent truncal adiposity (a collection of fat at the waist, back and neck, and wasting in the extremities.) She experiences dangerously elevated lipid levels, both cholesterol and triglycerides due to side effects from her medications. The elevated lipids required the addition of Gemfibrozil to control them.

While a treatment advocate, Jako emphasizes the need for patient education and a holistic approach. Her long term success on one three drug combination or HAART is the result of perfect adherence since 1997. As of 2017, Jako has had complete viral suppression for over 24 years.

The countries and states she grew up in include: Oklahoma, Illinois, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Mexico, Canada, Italy, Hungary, the Netherlands, England, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Turkey and Morocco. She is fluent in Spanish, French, Italian and English and speaks some Hungarian, Dutch and German. She attended Summit County High School in Frisco, Colorado, Glencoe High School in Hillsboro, Oregon, Lake Oswego High School in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Grant High School in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from the latter in 1992.

Jennifer Jako (born 1973) is an AIDS activist, filmmaker, photographer, lecturer and designer. She is the co-director of the documentary film, Blood Lines, a portrait of HIV-positive youth. Following her infection with HIV at age 18, she began educating in the hopes of preventing HIV infection in young people.