Say you have HIV, and people immediately want to know how you got it – were you promiscuous? Reckless? The victim of a tragic injustice?
Almost four decades since two papers whose authors both claimed to have identified the virus apparently linked to AIDS were published in the same issue of Science, HIV and being infected by it are still shrouded in mystery created by ignorance.
This is why Kundai Nachito, a chronic illness educator and health advocate has no patience for origins stories when it comes to HIV/Aids. The fact is she has it, she was diagnosed when she was three years old, she’s living with it, and explaining how she got it really is a distraction from her main mission, which is to give visibility to the stories of people living with invisible illnesses.
