Chika Ekezie, an Imo State indigene living with HIV, has recounted how he experienced workplace discrimination after his employers saw his medical test results.
Ekezie, who became an HIV advocate after publicly disclosing his status in November 2024, shared the experience during an interview with The Punch. He also revealed that he had spent seven years denying his condition before deciding to speak openly about it.
Recounting how he discovered he was living with HIV, Ekezie said he had suffered repeated health problems, including fever, fatigue, pneumonia, night sweats, severe headaches and weight loss. He initially relied on medication from pharmacies and rested whenever he felt better, but eventually sought hospital care after the illnesses kept recurring.
Medical tests confirmed his HIV status. He said he was not particularly disturbed by the diagnosis at first because he had heard about the condition, although he did not fully understand it at the time.
His experience changed when he began encountering negative reactions from people around him. Ekezie recalled that, while working with a magazine agency in Lagos, his frequent illnesses and physical appearance raised concerns among his employers, who asked him to undergo medical tests at a hospital they recommended and paid for.
He said the situation took a different turn after he submitted the results to the company. According to him, his employers informed him later that same day that he had to leave, using renovation work at their premises as the explanation.
Recalling the incident, which he described as his first experience of HIV-related stigma, Ekezie said, “When the results came out, I had to show them at my workplace because the company paid for the tests. I presented the results at about 10am, and by 4pm, they told me that the company was renovating its premises and that I had to leave.”
Ekezie added that he left Lagos that night on a bus. He also alleged that the person who recommended him for the job was contacted by his employers and later disclosed his HIV status to someone else, causing the information to spread.
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