By CIC Health.
A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS FOR 20 YEARS SHARES HER SECRET OF BEING UNDETECTED.
Today, December 1, 2020, is World’s AIDS Day. This day is celebrated to raise awareness about AIDS, a disease exposes people to vulnerable infections and diseases.
In 2019, statistics show there were approximately 38 million people across the world living with the virus. 1.6 million of these people living with HIV/AIDS were in Kenya.
Meet Doreen Moraa Moracha, a 28-year-old woman who tested positive for HIV at the age of eight. When she was diagnosed with the virus doctors gave her only four years to live. 20 years later, Doreen is well and celebrating life.
“2020 marks exactly 20 years since I was diagnosed with HIV. I was 8 years old when my parents were told I was HIV positive. Doctors gave me up to my 12th birthday,” she recently posted on Twitter.
Doreen said when she tested positive her parents were told by relatives that she had been bewitched as HIV diagnosis was associated with witchcraft in her village at that time.
The founder of ‘I am a Beautiful Story’ organisation does not shy away from disclosing her HIV status to the public and has been fighting the stigma through various platforms for over 10 years now.
The beautiful lady says many people do not believe her when she opens up about her status as she does not look like she is infected. What is her secret then?
Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs is what helps Doreen to manage what she refers as the ‘tiny virus’ in her body. She says she has been ‘faithful’ to ARVs for the last 15 years which has helped her stay strong and fight opportunist infections.
“Incase you recently tested positive for HIV and you are struggling with it, remember that you’ll be okay just give yourself time to adapt and adjust. Incase you have ARV fatigue, it happens but you don’t have to let treatment fatigue win, take your medication because that’s the only way you can become UNDETECTABLE. YOU are greater than HIV,” she tweeted on Monday.
Since ARVs has helped Doreen have an undetectable viral load it means she cannot pass the virus to someone else through unprotected intercourse.
“They say HIV is a death sentence,