Idowu Kayode had lost six pregnancies. Each time a miscarriage occurred, it was usually with a lot of blood loss. She recalls that in 2002 when she discovered her HIV positive status, she had given up on life. Her husband took her to several hospitals, clinics, churches and prayer houses.
These women are happy not because they no longer live with HIV but because they see concrete reason to be euphoric – the HIV in their blood stream have become successfully suppressed so much so that the virus in every one of them is now undetectable.
The Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN) has commenced a project aimed at motivating adolescents and young persons living with HIV to consistently utilize free HIV care and treatment services available in the hospital, attend support group meetings, correctly take their HIV medications, achieve viral suppression and live healthy lives.
In 2006, Sa’adatu Mohammed would have been buried and gone forever – a grave was already prepared for her remains. Sa’aadatu, who had been critically sick, passed out momentarily. When her family members were contemplating where to bury her, her mother, who held her sorrowfully heard her heart tick and shouted aloud, “she is alive, she is alive!”