‘I contracted HIV after cheating on my wife 31 years ago’ — Nigerian man opens up

A Nigerian man identified as Salisu Ahmed has shared his experience living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for 31 years.

In a recent interview with reality star Doyin David, Ahmed revealed that he contracted the virus after his first extramarital sexual encounter.

He discussed the stigma he faced, including being denied access to a shared toilet and bathroom, losing his teaching job, and being abandoned by his wife and children.

“I am Salisu Ahmed, I have been living with this virus for 31 years,” he said.

“The first experiment of going outside my matrimonial home is how it happened. It has been proven that about 85 to 90 percent of people living with HIV contracted this thing through sexual intercourse.

“I was denied the use of the bathroom of the compound, I was not allowed to access the toilet, I was formerly a teacher so I was asked honourably to stop coming to the school.

“She packed everything including the children at home, they left me.”

In July, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) reported that an estimated two million Nigerians are living with HIV.

In May, the Biochemist Practitioners Association of Nigeria (BPAoN) said it has developed a potential natural treatment for HIV/AIDS after passing through four control phases.

The association added that the treatment could potentially eliminate life-threatening viruses from the human circulatory system.

In 2022, a 66-year-old man was cured of HIV after undergoing a stem cell transplant.

According to a statement by the City of Hope Medical Centre, US, where the procedure took place, the man experienced remission from the virus after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the disease.

The centre said the patient was the fourth in the world and the oldest to go into long-term remission of HIV after receiving stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.