The news was devastating at the time,
but the Ghanaian singer and actress came out brave. She found true love,
and is now an awareness advocate for HIV/Aids.
In an interview with Vanguard, she details her story.
Read excerpts;
As a matter of fact, I visited a school
to educate the students. After talking to them they were keen to test
for HIV. I also joined the queue and got tested but it was negative. It
means one must stay with one’s medication forever. Regular medication
can make it read that way. It doesn’t mean such a person is no longer a
career.”
On contracting the virus:
“I contacted the disease in 2007, through a member of my church. I was
to spend a night with him in his house. When he removed his clothes, I
saw some kind of rashes all over his body. I was terrified, as I
innocently asked him why he was like that. He covered up, saying it was a minor
skin infection and that it was nothing serious. But when he wanted to
make love to me, I insisted that he must used condom. He told me that he
didn’t like using condom.
However, when I insisted, he agreed but
he never used it. He removed it while entering into me. We did it
several times that night. After few weeks, I became pregnant for him.
When I told him, I was pregnant, he advised me to abort the baby. But I
refused, insisting on keeping the baby.
He later warned me that if insisted, I
would have myself to blame in future. I never knew what he meant until I
was diagnosed HIV positive. He also infected other ladies in the church
before he died.”
On being an awareness advocate for HIV/Aids:
“I was driven by the need to help other carriers of the HIV/AIDS virus.
This is because most AIDS patients are brought to the hospital when
they are almost dead. Victims find it difficult to undergo medical test
to determine their HIV/AIDS status.
I realised when people get to know about
their HIV status at the early stages and they are put on medication,
they wouldn’t die. They would live their normal lives. So, I decided to
use myself as an example. That was what motivated me to begin the
campaign against HIV/AIDS virus.”
On her husband: “Before
we got married, my husband was educated about the deadly disease. But
he is also a carrier of the disease. At the moment, medically both of us
are negative to HIV virus. This is because we have been put on
medication for long.
But that does not mean, we should stop
taking our medication. Even though we test negative now, we keep taking
our medication. We had one child together who did not test positive to
HIV because of the medication.”
On life after contracting HIV:
“That’s not the end of the world for any carrier of the HIV/AIDS virus.
There is life after contacting the deadly disease. The HIV virus can be
found in the semen in the man, and not in the sperm because the sperm
is what goes to form a baby. It doesn’t carry the HIV virus, but the
semen is what contains the HIV virus.
So, HIV positive man who is on
medication can share sexual activity with an HIV negative woman, and
they both can produce an HIV negative baby. You can see that there is
life after contacting the HIV virus.
HIV positive man can marry an HIV
negative woman, and they can still make babies without him infecting the
wife or the baby, just as an HIV positive woman can also marry an HIV
negative man. There are a lot of couple today who wouldn’t come out to
share their stories, but who are living with HIV/AIDS virus. They are
keeping the secret to themselves.”
On married life:
“Marriage for me was normal but they say, in every marriage there are
challenges. Things have happened in the past which I wouldn’t want to
talk about here. Talking about the stigma, there was one day, my
seven-year old son came from school and told me to stop that HIV thing
that I am doing. According to him, his friends said, they wouldn’t play
with him because his mum is HIV positive. There are challenges but life
must go on.”
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