The story of the student who was born with AIDS and learned to live well with it

Read the full testimonial below.

I lost my parents to AIDS

I know that my father contracted the virus and transmitted it to my mother through sexual intercourse. When she got pregnant with me, they didn’t know about the disease. After I was born, in 1992, my father started to get sick. When he went to the doctor, he was soon diagnosed and he broke the sad news to my mother. She took the test and it was positive. Therefore, I ran the risk of being contaminated too, during pregnancy or breastfeeding. They did the test and, yes, I had the AIDS virus.

The three of us started heavy treatment to keep the virus in check. We had to reinforce our immunity, do a battery of tests and live on alert. My father died when I turned 2 years old. My mother struggled with the disease for the longest time.

But she suffered much more. Just imagine: she was contaminated by her husband and even contaminated her daughter. It must have been difficult to deal with those emotions. And my mother couldn’t resist: she went into depression and gave up treatment. Defenceless, she contracted every possible disease and was left in a vegetative state. Every time I went to visit her in the hospital, Mom got worse.

She told me that I had a health problem like hers and that we needed to treat it. But no one ever told me that I was HIV positive. But somehow, at school, my classmates found out that I had AIDS before I did. Then, I heard a buzz of people commenting that I was contaminated with a virus. Some colleagues started to avoid me.

At that time, an aunt adopted me and prepared me. “Your mother is very weak and it’s time for her to rest. When that happens, you will move in with me.” Mom died soon after and, at age 13, I went to live with my aunt in Céu Azul, where I spent my childhood.

I was afraid of rejection

There, my strategy for defending myself was to stay away from everyone. I was terrified of being rejected. I was lucky that I started doing a specific psychological treatment for patients with HIV. It helped me to understand the disease. I was also instructed to attend groups of infected young people. That’s how I found out about the National Network of Adolescents and Young People Living with HIV. I participated in conferences and made friends who, like me, were born infected.

The problem was the distorted understanding I had of the situation: I thought I would be happier if I related only to people with the virus. And then she remained silent on a daily basis, in contact with other people. Anyone who knew about my illness had found out through some other means, never through my mouth. Of course, close friends knew and saw my treatment, after all, I take seven pills a day. If I follow the schedules, I have no side effect. But when I forget or delay I suffer from nausea and vomiting. I also need to control the exams: I have to do frequent blood counts and an exam that analyzes my immunity and the amount of virus every six months. Other than that, I have a normal life. Even so, I made a point of hiding my illness from the world.

I opened the game and lead a normal life

I kept silent until I was 19, in 2012, when I went to live in Cascavel (PR), at another aunt’s house, to study biological sciences at college. The idea of ​​going to a place where nobody knew me sounded wonderful. However, that same year, I was invited by the Ministry of Health to participate in an awareness campaign against prejudice. They wanted to show that AIDS is not caught in the air, in contact with hands or food. The result was so cool that they decided to spread the campaign across Brazil, including in the cities of the carriers who participated in the manifesto. When the posters with our photos arrived at my college, the board called me to ask for my permission. I took a deep breath and approved!

Most people thought I was the model for the campaign. That’s how I decided to tell the truth to those who approached. And, to my surprise and joy, everyone reacted very well! So much so that I moved in with my new friends and had a normal life with them.

And it was right around that time that I had my first boyfriend, Vinicius*, who didn’t have HIV. He knew about my illness and still fell in love. We were together for six months and we always take all the necessary care! Our romance ended, but it was great.

I want to get married and adopt a child

I always knew that I couldn’t neglect my medicine and my diet. I saw what happened to my mother when she stopped being treated. And once I felt the result of carelessness on my skin: I didn’t eat, I got very weak and I had a seizure inside the classroom. I was attended to and soon I was fine, but from that day on, I learned that I have to take care seriously. After a year and a half living with my friends, I moved back to my aunt’s house. She takes really good care of me and I really need that support.

I’m almost finishing college and today I see that my university life made me accept my condition. I had proof that I can lead a normal life. I want to work in pharmacy and I am thinking about getting married and becoming a mother, but I know that this could compromise my health and expose my baby to a series of unpleasant procedures, such as taking medicine frequently. That’s why I’m thinking about adopting a child. I think it’s fairer. I will always fight for my life and seek a better future with the reality I have.

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