‘Yes, I have HIV’ – Doreen Moraa opens up on living with the virus since birth

At age 8, Doreen became very sickly, but doctors could not find the cause of her illness. Her doctor recommended an HIV test, and that is when her parents discovered that she was HIV-positive.

"My parents also took tests; only my mother was positive, meaning I was infected through mother-to-child transmission. Of all my siblings, only I and my brother tested positive, but my brother later passed away," she narrated.

The advice the doctor gave her family was simple: "Go home and love her." That was due to the lack of drugs available then and the limited knowledge about the virus.

As a child living with HIV, Doreen did not have much information; she only knew she was always sickly and that her family took good care of her and loved her very much.

“I frequently missed school. When I joined a boarding school in high school (Form 2), my mother had to sneak in antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for me and told me that if anyone inquired, I should say that I had a heart condition. That is how I managed to go through secondary school without stigma,” she explained.

Doreen narrated that it was only after completing secondary school that the magnitude of the virus she was suffering from truly dawned on her, noting that it was difficult to even form any relationship after disclosing her status.

One time, while watching television, she saw a news item on 'Babu wa Loliondo' and his alleged cures for all diseases. Desperate for a solution, she convinced her mother to take her to visit 'Babu wa Loliondo' for a cure. They returned believing they had found a solution and stopped taking their ARVs.

“Once I stopped taking my ARVs for close to two years, my viral load increased, and I became sickly again. After much guidance, I resumed my ARV treatment, and my health improved significantly,” she said.

Doreen has been on a journey of creating awareness and destigmatizing HIV. She explains that HIV is not the end of the world; "as long as you take your medication, you can live just like a normal person."

She states that people living with HIV can even marry and have children, as long as they are on medication.

“Not all HIV cases are caused by promiscuous behavior, a person can get HIV in many different ways. If a person has been exposed to the virus, they can use PEP within 72 hours, and those at risk of contracting the virus can use PrEP to prevent this,” she explained.

For mothers-to-be, there are different ways of preventing the baby from being infected.

Doreen says that more needs to be done to raise awareness, reduce infections, and even eradicate HIV by 2030.