HIV/AIDS ambassador Joyce Dzidzor Mensah has revealed that she has never been infected with the virus, despite parading as a carrier for several years.
She severally told the story in different media interviews of how she contracted the disease in 2007 after sleeping with a man in her church.
But in an interesting twist to the widely publicised story, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah said on TV3’s New Day programme that she has “never had HIV/AIDS.”
“I plead with the general public and my fans not to be disappointed in me for acting all these years,” she said in a separate interview with the Daily Guide newspaper.
She was the HIV/AIDS ambassador for the Ghana Aids Commission and even produced an HIV-themed movie “My Cross Roads” which featured herself, John Dumelo, Ekow Smith Asante, Vicky Zugah, Benjamin Kwadey among others.
Why the revelation now?
In an interview with the Daily Guide newspaper, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah explained that “I knew there was going to be a time the truth about my status was going to come out and this is the time.”
She apologized to the hundreds of churches both locally and abroad who invited her to share her story.
But she insisted that “It was worth it because a lot of lives were saved through my advocacy work.”
“I also plead with schools, institutions and banks who have all benefited from my story to forgive me,” she added.
The story she peddled for years
I contracted the disease in 2007, through a member of my church. I was to spend a night with him in his house.
When he removed his clothes, I saw some kind of rashes all over his body.
I was terrified, as I innocently asked him why he was like that. He covered up, saying it was a minor skin infection and that it was nothing serious.
But when he wanted to make love to me, I insisted that he must use condom. He told me that he didn’t like using condom.
However, when I insisted, he agreed but he never used it. He removed it while entering into me.
We did it several times that night. After few weeks, I became pregnant for him.
When I told him, I was pregnant, he advised me to abort the baby. But I refused, insisting on keeping the baby.
He later warned me that if insisted, I would have myself to blame in future. I never knew what he meant until I was diagnosed HIV positive.
He also infected other ladies in the church before he died.
By: Nana Boakye-Yiadom/citifmonline.com/Ghana