Many people
are aware that HIV/AIDS is still a deadly disease even with the availability of
medications for suppressing and keeping it at bay in patients when detected
early even though a few other people still play games or gamble with their
lives when it comes to playing safe. Apart from those who by virtue of
mistakes, not on their part but got infested from visiting places such as saloons
where needles for hair are most times shared or by using unsterilised items
during pampering such as pedicures and manicures as well as wrongfully
transfusing untested blood to patients by some doctors and nurses in hospitals
thereby creating more problems for the patient in the times ahead, there are
still some others who have thrown caution to the winds while indulging in
certain practices including illicit sex, drugs and the ilk’s.
I saw a report
recently on BBC where Vanessa Roberts was having a chat with one Victoria
Derbyshire who was said to have being diagnosed with HIV in 2014 after living
with the virus unknowingly for more than 30 years which was after I had read on
the same report that in the UK, people with HIV are being diagnosed late
because hospitals and GP practices in England and Scotland are ignoring
guidelines and failing to carry out HIV checks. I thought it was just an African practice!
I was
still in total shock and amazement over the news of Victoria living with HIV
unknowingly for 30 years when I stumbled on a report by the Nigerian Vanguard a
while ago.
According to the report, James
Turner, a 67-year-old Irish national based in Nigeria knowing he was HIV
positive confessed to have slept with no fewer than six other ladies having
being accused by his 31-year-old Nigerian girlfriend, a Benue state-born lady who
stumbled on Turners’ anti-retroviral drugs which he had been taking secretly
for a couple of months, of deliberately infecting her with the Human
Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV having dated him for about eight years.
One of the shocking twists to the
story was that Turner also confessed that when his status was confirmed, in
other not to infect his wife with the virus, sent his wife back to the Republic
of Ireland. Talk about love for the
innocent woman!
Shamefully, though not shocking, as
it happens even with some supposedly responsible persons, it was gathered,
during interrogation that among the girls the suspect had slept with was his
girlfriend’s friend. The concerned ladies, it was gathered, were all commercial
sex workers. Talk about a bad business,
gone worse!
However, unconfirmed reports say he
had slept with more than six ladies. His girlfriend, identified simply as
Helen, reported Turner to the police last Friday, after the latter reneged on
his promise to settle the former with N2.5 million. In these times? No wonder the guy reneged, because we all know that with the way the
economy is at the moment, even the greatest form of acrobatics of sex in bed
would not earn a hawker, one million naira, just like that.
According to the aggrieved prostitute
and lover, she narrated that “When we got to Liester Hospital, Ikeja, they ran
some tests on him because he was sweating and also running temperature. The
doctor gave him drugs for malaria. “At that hospital, if one is sick and has
such high temperature, they will run a HIV test on the person without his knowledge.
After running the test on him, the doctor invited us to his office and asked if
he could talk to him in my presence, he said no, that I should wait outside.
The doctor thereafter, broke the news to him.
“When we got home, he was quiet. He
did not tell me anything. I realised that he was taking a particular
medication, which he hid from me. “There was a time I even drove to the
hospital to pick a brown envelop, which was sealed, for him. It was his
medication, but I did not open it. “When I discovered that he kept hiding his
medication from me, I asked him what kind of medicine he was taking and he told
me that it was for malaria and typhoid. I did not say anything because I
thought that the prescription was for a long period of time”.
“He continued taking it for about
three to four months. So, one day I opened the medication and wrote out the
name of the drug. Thereafter, I googled the name on my phone to know what type
of medication it was, to my shock I discovered it was an anti-retroviral for
HIV. I went to meet Jim in the living
room and asked why he was taking medication meant for people living with HIV
and also asked if he was HIV positive, but he said no. “He told me that the
doctor gave him the medication for his legs, which has caused him sleepless
nights.”
Helen’s worst fear was confirmed
during a visit to the doctor, who disclosed that her lover was HIV positive. To
ascertain her status, the doctor also ran a test on her, where she was
discovered to have been infected with HIV. According to her, “since the visit
to the doctor with Jim (her pet name for Turner) his love-making with me
increased as if he was madly in love with me.”
Turner, who refused to speak with
journalists, however, insisted that Helen infected him with the virus. But
during interrogation by policemen at the Ikeja Division, he stated that he had
to send his wife back to Ireland on discovering that he was HIV positive, in
order not to infect her with the virus. He also said that he slept with other ladies
after his status was confirmed, right in his apartment. He also insisted that
Helen infected him with the virus, pointing out that she might have contacted
the virus from Kaduna State, where she spent some months to sell a property in
2013, same year he was confirmed to be HIV positive.
But when asked why he hid the
anti-retroviral drugs from Helen, he kept mum. He was released on bail over the
weekend, to enable him get treatment for an injury he sustained on one of his
elbows, from which he was bleeding. Police, however, assured that measures had
been put in place to prevent further infection of other ladies by the suspect.
Finally, the Lagos State Police
Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmus, who confirmed the arrest, said: “We
are waiting for expert’s opinion to conclude the charge against the suspect.”
Hmmm! After reading the entire story, I was reminded again that this is just another ‘Patrick Sawyer’ who knew he was already infected by Ebola but decided to still come to Nigeria, thereby infecting others.
Hmmm! After reading the entire story, I was reminded again that this is just another ‘Patrick Sawyer’ who knew he was already infected by Ebola but decided to still come to Nigeria, thereby infecting others.
The begging question now is, “Is Nigeria
their grave yards?
