Nigerian becomes 4th person worldwide to get cured of HIV

A 66-year-old Nigerian, Salisu Ahmed, has shared his remarkable journey of living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) for 31 years.
In a recent interview with reality star, Doyin David, Ahmed revealed that he contracted the virus after his first extramarital affair.

Ahmed spoke candidly about the severe challenges he faced, including the stigma associated with HIV. He was denied access to shared facilities, lost his teaching job, and was abandoned by his wife and children.

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“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 it through sexual intercourse,” Ahmed recounted.

He described the personal and social difficulties he endured, such as being denied access to communal bathrooms and being honorably asked to leave his teaching position. “She packed everything including the children at home, they left me,” he said.
Ahmed’s story took a hopeful turn when he was cured of HIV through a stem cell transplant at the City of Hope Medical Center in the US. According to the center, Ahmed entered remission after discontinuing antiretroviral therapy. He became the fourth person globally, and the oldest, to achieve long-term remission from HIV following the stem cell treatment from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.