“For 19 years I have been living with HIV and I see the good and the bad in people. …Friends do more for me than family and I just have to thank God because is He keeping me,” a mother of four told me in a recent conversation.
“But you see with this coronavirus, things get worse for me because my partner die and I get put out from the house and I had nowhere to go really. I move in with a relative but then, you know, the whole discrimination thing, she put me out and I had nowhere to go. But thank God is a friend who now helping me.”
Her statement underscored the double whammy that the COVID-19 pandemic has dealt persons living with HIV. They are more vulnerable to the virus because of their already weakened immune system and many are fearful of going out but staying home is not an option.