Isah Mohammed Yusuff is a Nigerian living with HIV. The young man who started the Association of Positive Youths Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria contracted the virus at 23 when he tested positive and his life was not the same again.
Narrating his experience to journalists, Isah claimed it was a nightmare and that he had to go through hurdles to recover. ‘I started falling sick and could not believe HIV was the cause of my sickness. My CD4 count was low, my viral load was high and I was a walking corpse. The fear of telling anyone the real cause of my sickness was a huge problem, I don’t want to be judged, I only had sex once when I became 19 and how I contracted HIV still baffles me’, he lamented.
‘Anytime I want to get my drugs, I would be scared. The health workers were harsh. But now, I really don’t care anymore and that was why I founded the Association of Positive Youths Living With HIV/AIDS to help many like me survive the tides of stigma’.
Takuma stated that his antiretroviral treatment put him back in sound health, and thereafter he returned to the University, finished his education and is now living with his wife and a daughter.
Isah claimed starting the association of people living with HIV was like a favour done to mankind hinted that a lot of people who had similar issues like him kept joining every day.
‘Now they are bold to come out and we engage in different activities which people living free of HIV are willing to partake in’.
Another person who has conquered her fears and can openly identify herself as someone living with HIV/AIDS is 27-year-old Agnes Ezeife, a trader that lives in Agege, Lagos.
In her narrative Agnes disclosed how she refused to go for treatment after she tested positive for HIV.
She hinted that her life stopped as she left school and attempted suicide before she met some aid workers who educated her on how she can live with the virus.
The trader who later met her husband, Charles at a medical retreat stated she is now happier than before and is bold to go public and share her HIV experience without any shame.
A survey recently conducted revealed that about 41 percent of people in Nigeria are living with HIV. States like Lagos, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Kaduna and Kano have higher number of people living with the virus.
According to the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Nigeria ranks as the country with the second largest number of people living with the infection.
HIV is a leading cause of mortality among young people. According to UNAIDS, 37.7 million people were living with HIV in 2020, of these people, 36.0 million are adults, while 1.7 million are children.
Packaged by Ayotunde Ayanda
