Nigerian man becomes fourth person worldwide to get cured of HIV

A Nigerian man, Salisu Ahmed, has opened up on how he lived with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus for 31 years.

In a recent interview with reality star, Doyin David, Ahmed disclosed that he contracted the virus after his first extramarital affair.

The 66-year-old shared the challenges he faced, including the stigma of being denied access to shared facilities, losing his teaching job, and being abandoned by his wife and children.

“I am Salisu Ahmed, I have been living with this virus for 31 years. The first experiment of going outside my matrimonial home is how it happened. It has been proven that about 85 to 90 per cent of people living with HIV contracted this thing through sexual intercourse.
“I was denied the use of the bathroom of the compound, I was not allowed to access the toilet, I was formerly a teacher so I was asked honourably to stop coming to the school.
“She packed everything including the children at home, they left me,” he stated.

He was cured of HIV following a stem cell transplant.
According to a statement from the City of Hope Medical Center in the US, where the procedure was performed, the man entered remission after discontinuing antiretroviral therapy.

The centre noted that the patient became the fourth person in the world, and the oldest, to achieve long-term remission from HIV after receiving stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.