PAIDA MUTOPO: When my doctor and my mum decided
to tell me that I was HIV positive, I just wanted to kill myself to be honest.
COMM: Single mum Paida Mutopo is enjoying
her first few months of motherhood, but it hasn’t been an easy journey.
PAIDA MUTOPO: When I found out that I was
pregnant I was so scared and at the same time I was excited because when I found out I was
HIV positive I never thought that I was going to have a child.
PAIDA MUTOPO: My mum believes that she contracted
the disease from my dad.
MAVIS MUTOPO: I passed it on to Paida I think
through breastfeeding or they say through, I don’t know, through giving birth.
COMM: Paida and her mother Mavis, both have
the virus. Mavis was unaware that either of them were HIV positive until Paida was taken
seriously ill, aged 9.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I was put on a stretcher and
they were like, “Looks like your kidney’s have failed.” They were doing tests and
I had like drips all over, they found out that I was HIV positive, but I was not told.
MAVIS MUTOPO: It was hard, I went in to depression.
I was just like, “Oh, what should I do? Should I kill myself and kill Paida?”
COMM: Still absorbing the news, Mavis decided
not to inform Paida of her HIV status straightaway. Waiting two years until Paida was old enough
to understand.
PAIDA MUTOPO: When my doctor and my mum decided
to tell me that I was HIV positive I just wanted to kill myself to be honest, yeah.
And I had a lot of like suicidal thoughts for a long time.
MAVIS MUTOPO: You know, knowing that you have
passed on something to your daughter, unknowingly, but you know that sense of guiltiness, it’s
always in you.
COMM: When word got out at school things went
from bad to worse.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I could be walking in a corridor
full of a lot of people and I would just hear someone shout like “HIV!” or “Die!”
Before that I used to like share drinks and food with my friends but after that they would
rather stay away from me.
COMM: Finally, aged just 16 Paida felt strong
enough to come out as HIV positive on Facebook and is continuing her work now on Snapchat.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I felt so relived that I’m
not hiding anything anymore, that people know about me without anyone saying, “oh, have
you heard that girl, she’s got HIV.” I think what people don’t understand is people
still think when you’ve got HIV you’ll definitely pass it on regardless. I decided
to raise awareness about HIV and talk about my story and encourage some of the people
that are on Snapchat to get tested and also explain to them more about HIV itself.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I take these medications at
nighttime because I find it easier taking it at nighttime; it’s only three tablets
that I take.
COMM: Paida’s medication is so effective
that the virus is undetectable in her system. When she was pregnant she took top-up drugs
to minimize the risk of passing on HIV to baby Kai. But the family still feared the
worst.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I don’t think I would have
been able to live with that, if he was found out that he was HIV positive. My baby was
tested while I was still at hospital then afterwards about three months later, a nurse
that I’m really close to told me she’s like, “oh, he’s tested negative!”
COMM: Today Paida has one of her 6-month checkups
to ensure that her current medication is keeping the virus under control.
Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: While you are here today, we could organize for you to get some bloods and I can give you a prescription.
Paida: Oh no! Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: Okay short scratch,
hold on. You all right? Paida: Yeah I’m fine.
Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: And you’re still happy with what you’re on?
Paida: Yeah I’m fine. Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: Good, so the
aim of treatment with anti vector viral therapy is to suppress the virus and what we mean
by that is, when we do the blood test, which is a molecular test to look for the virus
- we can’t actually find the virus in the blood. If I accidently stuck my finger with
a needle having taken blood from her there is no action that needs to be taken, I don’t
need to take any post exposure prophylaxis or anti vector viral therapy to prevent me
from getting HIV. The life expectancy of someone living with HIV is now comparable with the
rest of the population, which is certainly not what it was in the sort of late 90’s
when I first started working.
PAIDA MUTOPO: Watching Kai grow.
Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: Yeah, so what’s he doing at the moment?
Paida Mutopo: I think he wants to crawl you know because he’s always like rolling all
over the place. Doctor Katherine Adjukiewicz: When crawling
happens, you turn away for one second and they’re off. In terms of HIV in pregnancy,
certainly here in North Manchester, we have 20 to 40 women a year who deliver babies and
the women are positive. And certainly the time that I’ve been here we’ve never had
a positive baby.
COMM: Paida plans to continue campaigning
for a better future for herself and her family.
MAVIS MUTOPO: The HIV diagnosis I think it’s
made us more closer to each other so that we can fight the battle together.
PAIDA MUTOPO: I want one day to just wake up and know that there is no more stigma surrounding
HIV and that is my dream so I hope one day I will achieve it.