A mum was diagnosed with HIV after she fell ill with pneumonia. Naomi Sloyan is now warning other people that it can happen to anybody.
The 56-year-old had an ongoing illness and went to see her GP, she says the diagnosis was the last thing she and her doctor expected. At her lowest point she lost six stone and ended up being admitted to hospital for two weeks.
Naomi, who works as a location manager for ITV's Coronation Street, found out she had HIV because the doctors carried out some tests which showed that the kind of pneumonia she was suffering was associated with the virus.
She was diagnosed in 2018. Naomi says she can remember HIV and AIDs ads in the 80s which featured tombstones, and is pleased attitudes and medicine had changed dramatically since then.
She is sharing her story during National HIV Testing Week in a bid to bust any remaining stigma about living with HIV. Naomi says it can happen to anyone and urges people to get tested regularly - you can even buy at home tests.
Naomi was infected with HIV during what she describes as a 'brief fling' which she had entered into after coming out of a long-term relationship. She was 48 and perimenopausal.
At the time, she says her main concern with starting the relationship was birth control, with her thinking she didn't need to worry about contracting a sexually transmitted disease (STD). She said she did go for a sexual health check but wasn't offered a HIV test.
She should also have been contacted when her former partner was diagnosed with HIV yet this didn't happen. Speaking exclusively to Cheshire Live, Naomi said: "I was diagnosed in March 2018. I have been living with HIV since 2014 but obviously I didn't know I was HIV positive for all that time.
"For most of 2017 I was getting various symptoms such as rashes, extreme fatigue, pins and needles and coldsores and I was losing weight. I went to my GP and HIV was never raised. I live in Wilmslow, which is a white middle class area and I don't think it ever entered their head.
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"I got iller and iller and was eventually taken to hospital with a urine infection which turned out to be pneumonia. They still didn't test me for HIV or for pneumocystis (PPC) pneumonia, which is a form of pneumonia associated with people who are HIV positive.
"I was treated with antibiotics and came home but I didn't improve. I was still off work and I wasn't functioning. I went down to six stone and I was skin and bone. I was sleeping ridiculous amounts.
"In March my thoracic consultant did a routine check of my lungs and said 'have you ever had an HIV test?' and I said probably while I was pregnant. They said let's do one now and then two days later I was called in and told my viral load was in the millions with a CD4 count, which tests for immunity, of seven. I was very poorly."
She continued: "It was a complete shock to be told I was HIV positive but, also, weirdly, it was a relief. I had been worried that it was some kind of cancer.
"Once I got over the initial shock it was quite a relief just to know what was causing my symptoms and that it was perfectly treatable."
Naomi said that once the pneumonia had cleared she was able to go on to antiretroviral medication and that, within two weeks, she felt like a different person. Within around a month, she was back at work.
"After being so sick, this was amazing," she added. "With most people, it takes about six months to get to an undetectable level. With my diagnosis coming so late, it took me about two years.
"I've been at an undetectable level for the last few years now. I live a perfectly normal life and you would not know I was living with HIV.
"If they'd had opt out HIV testing when I was admitted to A&E then it would have been picked up earlier, rather than being poorly all that time. That never needed to happen."
