Emile Habinshuti has spent 20 years living with HIV/AIDS. Back then before he acquired the virus, he was a construction mansion with a sizable body that one can imagine for a young man.
In 2002, when Emile Habinshuti was infected with HIV/AIDS, Rwanda, like the rest of the world, had no anti retroviral medicines (ARVs) as we know them today.
Habinshuti was at one point hospitalized for a year and because of lack of proper medication, this almost sent him to an early grave.
He says that back then, all HIV patients were not told of their status but treated as if they were suffering from malaria.
“The doctors couldn’t tell us that we had HIV/Aids and they gave us pain relievers but I would see patients dying one by one to the extent that I remained in the sick bay alone, waiting to die but not knowing what I was suffering from,” Habinshuti says.
One female pediatrician sympathized with him and advised him to take an HIV test, and when he did, he discovered was HIV positive.
With the lack of proper ARVs then, Habinshuti says that patients were given a cocktail of drugs including one called Bactrim to relieve their body pain and Trivo30 which demanded a lot of feeding but also caused body deformation and led to him spending months moving on clutches.
“This medication was stressful, caused loss of appetite because the throat was overwhelmed with tablets which even deformed my face and diminished eyes,” Habinshuti narrates saying that this resulted in a weight of 51Kgs.
Many in his community laughed at him and said he was a ‘dead man walking’ but he resisted death. Luckily enough the world was opened to better HIV treatment which he says turned around his life till today.
In 2003 he joined Rwanda Network of People Living with HIV (RRP+)- an organization of HIV which advocates for treatment and access to health care, which saw patients getting new, better medication called Detogrovile.
“The new medication was so different and stress free. It requires us to take ten tablets a month and pick them up twice a year, compared to 12 times a year with the earlier medication,” Habinshuti said.
This difference in medication and access to treatment, has today turned Habinshuti into a very different person to an extent that persons who used to wish him a quick death question how come he is still alive.
Habinshuti, says that some people at his church (Pentecostal) used to ask why he wastes time talking about his HIV/Aids status yet he was dying.
"This didn’t stop me. It instead encouraged me to wage a war on HIV using the free ARVs that government and RRP+ have made accessible to us,” Habinshuti said.
For now Habinshuti says he is not about to die of HIV/AIDS and his status gives him hope to testify more to save other people’s lives through holding open community and mainstream media talk shows on HIV/AIDS and mobilizing his neighbors to take a VCT test.
Habinshuti has shifted to ICT career where he does project planning, a career path which he says he learnt after recovering and increased his Viral Count (CD4) due to sticking on taking ARVs on time and daily.
Habinshuti is happily married with three children and five adopted children. He is very thankful to RRP+ and the government whose support gave him a second chance to live and love once again.