Sucker River Woman Infected with HIV Speaks Out

Sucker River Woman Infected with HIV Speaks Out

Wednesday, December 03, 2003 at 14:25

A 40-year-old woman from the Sucker River reserve north of La Ronge is talking to members of her community today about her battle with HIV.

Emily Roberts was diagnosed with HIV in 1996. She says she was infected in 1994 after having unprotected sex.

Roberts says she plans to tell people about how she became infected and how she has learned to cope.

Roberts says she hasn’t noticed any symptoms since being diagnosed, but says she has noticed a change in people’s attitudes about the condition.

She says the fact that she’s not afraid to let the public know that she has AIDS speaks volumes about how well she’s accepted by her home community. However, she says it wasn’t always that way — and she knows it’s something others with AIDS also go through.

Roberts is talking to the community this afternoon at the band hall about what Roberts says is an “epidemic” of HIV and AIDS in Aboriginal communities.