HIV rumour shattering woman’s life

A St James woman’s world was turned upside down after her face was splashed across a social media page that has been posting persons, alleging that they are HIV-positive.

“I found out about the page yesterday (Tuesday) morning, roughly around nine. I was getting ready to go to work and a former co-worker of mine sent me a link on WhatsApp saying I need to look at this,” she said.

She explained that she did not view the video at first, as she was preoccupied with making funeral preparations for her father, who had recently passed.

“I am grieving my father as well as a close friend, so I was dealing with an issue in my family chat when that message came in, so I didn’t pay it any mind,” she said.

To ease the pressure of funeral planning, she told THE STAR that she opened the message, thinking it was a video that would uplift her mood. But there, she said, everything changed.

“When it popped up, the first thing that hit me was that [it said] I have HIV for the past two years and I was just [asking] ‘Who is this person?’ and I just started crying,” she said.

“I started crying because I have three kids. I have kids and this is not just going to ruin my reputation, it’s going to ruin theirs,” she added, insisting that she is not HIV-positive.

The woman lamented that the video has gone viral.

“My family started calling from overseas and here, my last child’s father started calling his mother and just asking a lot of questions. It is a lot. Persons are saying they are sorry to hear and I am like ‘I am not sick’,” the mother of three stressed.

Another heartbreaking part for her is that the video being used was taken from her own social media account, and marks a moment where she was consumed by grief.

“I made the video last week Monday when I found out that a mentor of mine died, and a week before that I got a call that my father died,” she said. Still processing the losses, she got more bad news, so she posted the video to her TikTok page.

“And they took it posting that I have HIV,” she said, her voice breaking.

The woman told THE STAR that while she made it through her work day, by the evening, many persons at her job called, or sent messages, some saying that persons were using her videos.

“Even this morning (Wednesday) someone from the community called but she knows me and know it is not true,” she said.

To set the record straight, she told THE STAR that on the same morning that she found out, she did an HIV test even before she went to work.

“I got a test done and posted the picture to show how much it hurt me,” she said. The woman said that she also got tested towards the end of last year.

She said that her partner of three years has not been affected by the news, but is confused about why someone would do this. In the meantime, she noted that while some have suggested that it will blow over, she needs her name cleared and is demanding an apology.

“I contacted [the] Cybercrimes [Unit], sent them the original video and the link to the person’s page. A lot of persons have seen it but I need that person to take down my video even though it has gone viral. That person needs to do a public apology and let people know they told a lie on me. I don’t even know if this person knows me,” she said.