A positive HIV diagnosis is not something to be taken lightly, but with modern treatments, the diagnosis is no longer a death sentence.
However, Moses Nsubuga better known as Supercharger has revealed that his family dug his grave when he tested positive 25 years ago, TheGuardian reports.
The Ugandan musician who is also a radio host made it known that his wife of eight years left him at the testing centre when she heard his status.
According to him, she warned him of his reckless behaviour but he didn’t take heed. In 1994, they decided to take an HIV test together and while she tested negative, his result came back positive.
Soon after the test results were revealed, Nsubuga’s wife excused herself to visit the washrooms and never came back.
“The mother of my children left me at the test centre,” he previously told Ugandan Monitor.
Four years later, the musician became very ill after failing to adhere to the antiretroviral treatment prescription.
“I was not used to swallowing drugs every day and on top of that they were too expensive,” he told the World Health Organisation.
“I was about to die. My relatives gathered at my aunt’s home in Entebbe. They had laid me on the mat. They started planning. They wondered if I died, who had Ush1.5 million to take my body to Kitalaganya. The wise thing was to put me on the bus before I die.”
His constant vomiting ended their bus journey as other passengers were not comfortable and the help of a Good Samaritan eventually got them to commuters to their home village in Kitalaganya, central Uganda.
On the drive home, his aunts briefly stopped the journey to purchase materials for his burial.
“They bought cement, one iron sheet and backcloth which they would use on my grave. We then continued. They monitored me every day but I didn’t die,” Nsubuga said.
Things have since turned around for the better for the singer who was rescued by a former parliamentarian and took him to Kampala for treatment after learning of his travails.
The singer has since released “Say No to Resistance,” a song in which he urges people living with HIV to stick to antiretroviral drugs.