You won’t get AIDS when you sleep with me – Joyce Dzidzor

Former HIV/AIDS Ambassador, Joyce Dzidzor says she is now a non-reactive patient and therefore cannot infect men who come into contact with her. A ‘non-reactive HIV test results mean the test did not find evidence of HIV infection in a patient even though the test may have missed infections that may have occurred a month prior to testing.

Joyce has been battling stigmatization after her contract with the Ghana AIDS Commission was terminated.

In an interview with crimecheckghana, Joyce explained, eating well, taking her anti-retroviral drugs, and managing her psychological well-being have made the virus inactive in her. According to her, she cannot transmit the virus through sexual intercourse to other persons with negative status. “Many people thought that five years later I would have died after contracting the virus. It is not only about taking the drugs, but it is also psychological. The healing process begins with the mind. The load of the virus is very low in me.” She said.

Sadly, her children are now bearing the brunt as one of them, Dela, “has been sacked from school”. Joyce said the headteacher in whose care she had left her as she left for Germany, returned her daughter to her parents in the village shortly after she had left the country. This compelled her to storm the country to organize a Press Conference to clear all doubts, apologized, and also made her status and the status of her children known to the world. The tests, which were carried out on National TV, came out positive for her. However, the results of the tests of her two kids showed negative.

“It wasn’t a boarding school so, I asked the headteacher of my daughter’s school to accommodate her in his house to attend school. I was in Germany when my mother called me that the headteacher had returned my daughter to her in the village. When I asked for the reason, he was beating about the bush in a long E-mail he sent to me. He couldn’t tell exactly why he did that.”  She explained.

Joyce who had attempted suicide due to stigmatization says she does not want her children to face a similar situation. She called for justice for her children as it is against the law to deny a child education.

Crime Check Foundation (CCF) an implementing partner of the Justice Support Sector Activity (JSSA) is seeking to get justice for the children. The JSSA is an intervention that seeks to reinforce efforts by the US Government to enhance Ghana’s justice delivery system by increasing Citizen Oversight and Monitoring of Criminal Cases, increasing citizen knowledge and access to Justice Sector services, and strengthening advocacy for accountability of key justice sector institutions for improved justice delivery in Ghana.