Justice Cameron, a judge with South Africa's Constitutional Court, the highest court in the land and the equivalent of New Zealand's Supreme Court, credits the emergence of revolutionary antiretroviral drugs for saving his life.
And gaining a second chance at life caused him to do something many considered professional suicide.
In 1999, during a speech to a panel of his peers who were considering whether to appoint him to the Constitutional Court, he announced he had HIV-Aids.
"I am not dying of Aids, I am living with Aids," he told them, becoming the first senior public servant in southern Africa to acknowledge he had the virus.
Jaws dropped, and journalists seized upon the story, giving it mass coverage throughout southern Africa.
It was not surprising.
Justice Cameron is gay and Aids is primarily sexually transmitted.
He knew the stigma and disapproval associated with Aids, and the fear and mistrust many people had towards Aids sufferers at that time.
He says he felt an obligation to speak out, both because of his second chance at life, and because he knew many South African Aids sufferers did not have the same access to the antiretroviral drugs he had.
"It was the worst thing I had ever done in my life, and it was the best thing I had ever done.
"The public support I received was incredible."
He says he has lived a "full and vigorous life" since, working full-time and continuing his campaign to raise awareness and understanding about HIV and Aids, reinforce the need for people, especially gay men, to practice safe sex, and improve access to antiretroviral drugs.
He is in demand as a speaker worldwide.
This week he is in Dunedin as a guest of the University of Otago law faculty, giving public lectures and meeting students and staff.
He will also speak at Victoria University, Wellington, before flying home.
The HIV virus which leads to Aids took hold in the human population only 30 years ago.
It is now officially a worldwide pandemic, affecting an estimated 33.4 million people.
In South Africa, an estimated five to six million people - 11-12% of the population - are living with HIV-Aids, Justice Cameron says. (The total in New Zealand is about 1500.)
In the early 2000s, Justice Cameron again stood by the courage of his convictions, challenging then president Thabo Mbeki's statements that the idea Aids was a sexually transmitted disease was an idea racially motivated against black men.
His Aids denialism caused antiretroviral drugs to be withheld from South Africans for a period Justice Cameron describes as "a four-year nightmare".
It took a successful civil law suit in 2002 to ensure the drugs became available, and two years later the Government introduced a widespread public health programme training staff in the treatment of Aids and providing affordable drugs to almost everyone.
Justice Cameron says almost everyone, as there are still an estimated 500,000 South Africans too afraid of the stigma of Aids to risk a formal diagnosis and agree to treatment.
Aids does not define him, Justice Cameron says.
"I believe it is my work as a judge and on human rights issues which will define my legacy."
But he says he is happy to be known as the judge with Aids.
"I don't see it as demeaning to my work.
"There are too few voices speaking out about Aids, and about access to Aids drugs.
"I believe my Aids work complements my court work and my court work complements my Aids work."
At a glance
Name: Edwin Cameron (57)
Lives: Pretoria, South Africa
Educated: Stellenbosch University, Oxford University, University of South Africa Rhodes Scholar: 1975-77
Employment: Lawyer and anti-apartheid campaigner since 1983; human rights lawyer since 1986
Appointed: Queen's Counsel 1994; chairman of commission into illegal arms deals 1994; permanent judge of the High Court 1995; acting justice in the Constitutional Court 1999-2000; judge of the Supreme Court of Appeal 2000-2008; permanent justice of the Constitutional Court from January, 2009
Awards include: Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights, 2000; Stellenbosch University's Alumnus Award, 2000; elected honorary Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, 2003; San Francisco Aids Foundation Excellence in Leadership Award, 2003; Brudner Prize from Yale University, 2009-10.
Authored: Best-selling autobiography Witness to Aids, 2005; has co-authored several books on Aids and law issues.
