My thoughts on HIV and stigmatizing people with HIV.

I feel I should write this. Who knows, it might give one or two persons the will to continue living and not give up.
I am friends with many HIV positive people.
I know a woman in her late 40s who has been HIV positive since her 20s. She told me her story, and how she almost committed suicide after she graduated with a first class, only to shortly realize that she was HIV positive.
She was rehabilitated mentally and psychologically.
Today, she has a career, and also has two teenage HIV negative children.
She never got married, but she still managed to get a sperm because she really wanted to have children.
I have seen many HIV positive people who are married.
When it comes to HIV, although there’s no full cure yet (which I strongly believe will happen soon), it can be very well managed in such a way that the positive person can live a normal life. All you need to do is take your medications and go for routine checkups. Well, a routine checkup is something everyone should do at least once a year anyway, whether HIV positive or not.
The main thing a HIV positive person should be concerned about is the availability of antiretroviral drugs. With that, you are good to go.
Personally, I think conditions like diabetes, hypertension, etc are much more difficult to manage than HIV. Because HIV is not a fast killer. Most often than not, it gives you signs and gives you enough time to seek help and manage your health.
If you are reading this and you are HIV positive, I need you to know that everything will be fine.
People can now live an almost normal life with HIV.
Some of those CEOs are HIV positive.
Some of those celebrities you watch on TV are HIV positive.
HIV is NOT a death sentence. It’s just a health condition without a perfect cure yet, but can be managed to enable patients live normal lives.
Diabetes doesn’t have a perfect cure either, but it can be managed.
An alarming percentage of people who die as a result of HIV die as a result of depression, and other mental and psychological downturn, not the virus itself.
HIV has been made to seem like the worst thing that could happen to your health. That’s why some HIV positive people even kill themselves before the virus.
HIV is not the worst thing that can happen to your health. There are a list of over hundred health conditions that scare me more than HIV.
Get tested. Know your status. The earlier you start taking your medications, the more likely it is you would live a normal life.

• Chuka Vivian
  PS: If you’ve got useful information about HIV, please make them as comments here.