HIV
From SgWiki
[edit] HIV
- an acronym for H Immunity V or Human immunodeficiency virus
..
LIFE really got going for Ms Kousalya Periasamy, ironically, after she contracted HIV 15 years ago.
From being a housewife in India living in the rural village of Namakkal, a suburb near Chennai in South India, Ms Periasamy, now 35, learnt English from scratch and has become the poster girl for anti-Aids campaigns around the country.
As part of her work, she goes around hospitals fighting for better conditions for women. But as a result, the diminutive woman’s immune system suffered. She has been on antiretroviral medication since 2000 to prevent her health from getting worse.
But the thought that her work could potentially change the plight of other women in her shoes keeps her going.
Ms Periasamy contracted the HIV virus just three months into her arranged marriage to an older cousin in 1995.
Then aged 19, she became the first woman in India to publicly declare her HIV status that year – a bold move in a country where it was considered taboo, especially for women, to do so.
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