The early days of HIV/Aids
Witness History
BBC
4.5 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 30 November 2021
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The HIV virus was first identified by medical experts in a journal article in 1981. In the early days of the epidemic, carriers of the virus were stigmatised and treatment was in its infancy. Alan Johnston talks to Ugandan-born Winnie Ssanyu Sseruma about her experiences of having HIV back in the 1980s.
PHOTO: Winnie Ssanyu Sseruma
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Cladie Aide. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:24.9 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC sounds. |
| 0:31.1 | Hello Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:41.0 | This week we're marking World AIDS Day and the 40th anniversary of the first report on HIV AIDS in a medical journal. |
| 0:49.0 | Alan Johnston heard the story of one woman who contracted HIV back in the 1980s when medical science |
| 0:56.9 | still had almost no answers and the stigma surrounding the condition was at its most acute. |
| 1:04.0 | In my mind I was thinking, this means I'm dead. |
| 1:08.0 | It doesn't matter what he's saying. |
| 1:10.0 | It means I'm gonna die. |
| 1:12.0 | I was out of time, period. |
| 1:15.0 | Winnie, Sagnu Seruma, remembering the moment she was told that she was HIV positive. |
| 1:22.0 | She's of Ugandan origin but she fell ill while studying in |
| 1:26.6 | Maryland in the United States and before the doctor delivered his devastating |
| 1:32.1 | diagnosis Winnie seemed to have everything to live for. |
| 1:37.0 | We would hold parties like literally every weekend and I felt like life was at its best. I had personal interests. I loved African art and all of that, but I also had the sociology degree and I was vibrant, I was energetic. 27 what are the worries. |
| 1:57.0 | But after a routine health test when he received a letter calling her back to the clinic. |
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