‘How I Found Out I Was HIV Positive!!!’

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A Nigerian man has revealed how his life changed some years ago after he found out that he is HIV positive.

He shared his thoughts on Nairaland forum, writing:

“I “accidentally” found out I had HIV in 2015… Worst year of my life.. I know you might be thinking that I’m a promiscuous person but I assure you, I’m very far from that… So this is how it all started?

I did my NYSC in my dad’s company and finished in late 2014 and I was given a full year to go read a course I didn’t even want. So I instead volunteered for Youth In Action Against HIV and poverty in Tanzania. My dad was furious but my mum understood.

It was 6months filled with lessons, tears, experience and a firsthand witness to the sufferings of others… We tended to the poorest of the poor in rural Tanzania.

I later came down to Borno and later North bank area of Benue state, I realized there were a lot of vulnerable people that are hungry and can’t afford even cheap medical care thus they die of common malaria.

I didnt stay long in Borno before I started having this feeling of fatigue and blurry vision, I thought it was cuz of the stress that comes with what I do, so I decided to go home. Few days after getting home I started feeling this head splitting headache, I thought it was malaria/typhoid of which a lab test later confirmed.. Out of curiosity, I told the doctor to run a full check up.. Just to be on a safe side.. Which he did..

You should imagine my surprise when he told me I was HIV positive.. Nothing has ever prepared me for that moment.. It was funny how a malaria treatment could turn to an HIV nightmare.. I thought of just ending my life right then.

But i braced myself and took the drugs, I was surprised that it was free in Nigeria sef.

I rushed home and took my girlfriend to run the test and it turned out that she has it too…

We’ve been taking the drugs for the past 5years now with an high Cd4 count and a low viral load.. The virus is not detectable in our blood stream anymore and we are happily married and our first twin boys are negative.

If you’re out there and you’ve been in my shoes.. Its not the end of your life.. Life just happens and its not entirely your fault.

I don’t smoke, drink or live a reckless life or sleep around, like I’ve been in only one relationship all my life, so its not about your lifestyle.

I don’t know if I got it from the idp camps or my girlfriend(she was the only person I was with at that time), we just didn’t care, we moved on.

So lovelies, Take your ARV drugs, take fruits, eat well, within 3-6 months you can still have unprotected sex throughout your life with your partner without infecting them or your children.. You can live your life to the fullest and more.

P.s: HIV patients do not look skinny and dried up.. That’s just an archaic stereotype…

It is also not a death sentence.