Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and AIDS is one of the major public health crises prevalent among women in Nigeria. The ICIR’s NIYI OYEDEJI reports on the stigmatisation and discrimination some women living with this disease face.

WHEN Lucy Attah-Enyia tested positive for HIV 25 years ago, she thought she had received a death sentence and would soon die of the incurable disease.

The mother of three told The ICIR that her life flashed before her eyes when the doctor disclosed her HIV status to her. Still hale and hearty, Attah-Enyia said she never thought she could still be alive when she spoke with this reporter.

“I was so sad when the doctor who attended to me informed me that I had five years to live. He actually used the word ‘may’, so the five years was even under probability.”

Like Attah-Enyia, Gloria Asuquo is another woman who has been living with HIV/AIDS for over twenty years. The 32-year-old woman said life has not been rosy for her since she tested positive for HIV at the tender age of 10.

Asuquo said it took her family, particularly her dad, a long time before he summoned the courage of disclosing her status to her.

“When my father asked what I would do if a friend of mine gets diagnosed with HIV, I replied that I wasn’t going to eat with such person and all sorts because I thought people living with HIV had to look skinny.”

Asuquo was later visited at the hospital by high-ranking government officials, and pictures of her were taken even while she and her mum were unaware of what was going on.

“While I was still admitted at the hospital with no sign of sickness, I had to start rejecting the drugs they were giving me before my dad had to disclose to me that I had tested positive for HIV.”

She told The ICIR that she wept uncontrollably for days when she discovered she had contracted the HIV disease.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/inside-the-world-of-nigerian-women-living-with-hiv-aids/