Joe Muriithi Muriuki should be long dead by now as doctors gave him only three months to live when he was first diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 1987.
It is widely believed that HIV originated in Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo around 1920 when HIV crossed species from chimpanzees to humans.
To date, the earliest known case of HIV-1 infection in human blood is from a sample taken in 1959 from a man who died in Kinshasa.
HIV however only became a pandemic in 1980s when so many people across the world contracted the virus and died.
Kenya reported its first case of HIV in 1984, and by 1986 the virus was already an endemic causing deaths and a wave of stigma soon began spreading across the country.
HIV become one of the major causes of mortality and it placed tremendous demands on the health system and the economy. The epidemic affected all sections of society – children, youths, adults, women and men.
People who were diagnosed with HIV opted to hide their statuses from the public for fear of being stigmatized.
However, one man Joe Muriithi Muriuki stood out and made history in 1987 when he became the first Kenyan to publicly reveal that he was HIV positive.
Muriuki was given three months to live by doctors at the time of his diagnosis, doctors were certain he would die soon owing to the severity of virus back then.
At the age of 34, Muriuki’s hope in life was dashed but the support he got from his family gave him the strength to push on living each day at a time. His wife, who tested negative for HIV, was his support pillar.
Against all odds, Muriuki lived with the virus for 36 years, 26 of which he lived without any Anti-Retroviral (ARV) drugs.
“I had struggled with the infection without knowing what was happening since 1986. There was very little information about HIV, plenty of stigma and a lot of profiling and name calling. I was lucky I had a very supportive family, wife, children and relatives and as you can see now, I have lived with this HIV for 36 years,” Muriuki narrated during an interview with KTN.
The HIV warrior is now 62 years old, he noted that he would monitor his diet to ensure that he got the nutrients right and kept opportunistic diseases at bay for the 26 years he lived without ARVs.
“The ARVs just came about 10 years ago. During that time, I was surviving on what we call positive living. Ensuring that you are on proper diet. That is how I managed that period when I was not on ARVs, and it worked because I really experienced any bouts of infections,” said Muriuki.
For years, Muriuki led a healthy life until early 2020 when he began experiencing difficulties in swallowing solid food.
He sought treatment in April 2021 and was diagnosed with gut cancer which had affected 12cm of his oesophagus.
Muriuki began treatment immediately and has since lost 33kgs of his weight as a result of daily radiotherapy and weekly chemotherapy treatments.
Watch Muriuki narrate his story below:
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