HIV-positive at 13

HER medicine is in plain sight but only those who bother to read the writing on the bottles will know what it is for.

The mother of one, a three-year-old boy, Penny Shapumba (28) first found out that she was HIV positive at the age of 13.

Speaking to on the eve of today’s World AIDS Day commemoration, Shapumba said she has endured mockery and teasing from schoolmates as well as the community in her native Ondangwa.

Although both her parents were negative, Shapumba found out that she was HIV positive when she was due to undergo an operation.

“I felt sick while in high school. My mother took me to the doctor. I had something on my liver that needed to be removed. I think it was the procedure for them to do a test for all sorts of diseases before I had the operation. That’s how I was diagnosed with HIV,” she said.

Her head was spinning and filled with many questions on how she could possibly have been infected with HIV at such a tender age. Shapumba’s understanding mother at the time thought that she might have contracted the virus at school through blood contact with other pupils.

As the lastborn and favourite child, sex was the last thing on her mother’s mind because they spent most of their time together.

However, Shapumba suspects that she got the virus from a relative who she said had been molesting her since the age of nine.

“I could not tell my mother what he was doing to me when she (mother) was at work because I believed that discussing sex with elders was a taboo,” she said.

Shapumba’s biggest fear at the time was what would happen if the neighbourhood heard about her status.

“It was stressful because people in my community with HIV were stigmatised. But my mother has been encouraging me to take my medication because not everyone knew about my status,” she said.

She evaded Shamunatete (an antiretroviral clinic at Onandjokwe hospital) and remained on her mother’s medical aid for the longest time.

Her status was only known to her, the doctor, the pharmacist, her mother and two close family members. But things turned worse at school while in Grade 9 during a school HIV-testing day.

“It was out of peer pressure. I followed my friends. They insisted that I go. It was at a clinic at Ondangwa. Once we got tested, my friends were boasting about their negative results. But I came out with a card because I was positive. Follow-up dates were written on the card for me to come back.

“On our way home, the girls were showing each other their results. I was hiding mine thinking that if I disclosed my status to them, I would be stigmatised and discriminated against. They decided I was cheating on them and insisted that I show them my results. They grabbed my card and they went mute when they saw the results,” she said.

Shapumba has been living positively with the virus for 15 years. Apart from her community, she first disclosed her status to the father of her child when she wanted to start a family.

“It was not easy for him to accept my status. He said he loved me, but I am positive. He asked how I could have it and not infect him. He also went for counselling where he was told how to protect himself from contracting the virus. Furthermore, he understood that HIV should [not] prevent him from dating me for as long as there were other means to protect him,” she said.

Stigma continues to follow her. This year, Shapumba took to her social media platform to openly speak about her status and educate the public about the virus.

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