Sophie says she is fine at the moment. She is married, enjoys an active sex life and is reasonably healthy. She also has full-blown Aids. The 32-year-old contracted the deadly virus from a boyfriend who was a haemophiliac 11 years ago - long before the Government's HIV 'Don't die of ignorance' campaign began.

She only found out when she had a random blood test at the doctor's, who later told her she had a short time to live.

As the virus slowly gripped her, Sophie had no energy and slept for hours during the day. She nursed chest infections brought on by the virus seeping through her body. She came very close to death before a new cocktail of drugs that increased life expectancy brought her 'back to life'.

She said: "My immune system was totally gone. Although I did not pick up very many infections, two years ago I was given a year to live.

"The doctor really did not think I had much longer. I believed I was going to live, but she did not. These new drugs have transformed my life and I am back to doing everything I used to do and have loads of energy."

When she first contracted HIV, the specialist urged Sophie not to tell anyone of her illness.

"The consultant said I should not tell my family or anyone. People were so ignorant you did not know what sort of reaction you would get."

Sophie told her parents but not her brothers or sisters (SUBS: NO INFO ON THEM) when she was finally diagnosed with full-blown Aids three years ago.

She added: "I have always thought some new drugs would come along. That is how I have carried on. If I thought I was going to die in the next couple of years I would have got very depressed and given up."

When Sophie found out she had contracted the virus, she had already split up with her boyfriend and was comforted by her parents.

"I was in denial at the time. I was quite young and I did not know how to deal with it. I did not blame him because he reckoned he did not know. It was a very difficult situation and I just wanted to get on with my life and be as normal as possible."

Sophie met her husband nine years ago and he has been a rock of support. But when they first went out, she dared not tell even him of her illness in case he was scared off. She said: "We have been together about nine years and I told him after about one month. I let him get to know me and then sat him down and told him.

"He was absolutely shocked but he knew me as a person and had fallen in love with that, rather than HIV. I was so well you would not have known about HIV.

"I did not want to tell him on the first date, it would probably have terrified the poor chap. I wanted him to get to know me before I told him.

"He does get worried. I was ill for 18 months and he hates it when I am in hospital. But when I am well he is fine. We do not really look to the future and tend to live from day to day."

She always wanted a big family - five or six kids - but her hopes of this have been dashed as she cannot have children.

They have a regular sex life but always take precautions. Sophie is now on a combination therapy drugs which offer patients a much longer life-expectancy, but it has some side effects.

Her body shape is unusual, with skinny arms and legs but a bigfat body. The drugs can also cause diabetes and bring cholesterol levels up.

She said: "I cannot have children. I have been quite ill but with the new drugs I am much better. I am much more health conscious about my diet and exercise."

Sophie has suffered prejudice - when she caught Aids very few women had it. In 1987 it was seen by some people as a "gay plague" to be feared only by homosexuals or drug addicts.

Sophie said: "The first week I was in a daze and I took a week off work. We went away for a week to sort our lives out. I did not feel ill and I had no symptoms.

"I just got on with it and that is how I have lasted so long. But there was no real support (from the health system).

"I get very cross about prejudice. I would love to go public and tell people how I feel, but I just feel I cannot, you do not know how people are going to react. "If more people came out then we could be more educated. I think people still class it as a gay disease and a drug disease. I think people are better than they used to be - the younger generation are better."

Sophie's husband is adamant her disease remains a secret.

She said: "He is paranoid about anybody finding out about me.

"He thinks people are ignorant and does not know how they are going to react."

*Sophie's real identity has been disguisedchanged to protect her anonymity.

TERRIBLE TIDINGS ALL DOCTORS DREAD

It is a diagnosis of despair that even the most experienced doctor dreads.

Babies born with Aids have been infected by their mother. The real tragedy is that many mothers do not tell doctors they have Aids during pregnancy, so they are not given drugs to combat the chances of their child also contracting it.

In untreated mothers, the chances of a baby developing Aids is one in seven. With treatment, the odds are improved to just one in 40.

Dr Dick Mayon-White, consultant epidemiologist for Oxfordshire Health Authority, said: "Sometimes women do not want to tell the doctors because it opens up a new problem with their partner or family, at a time when they need support." Of the 6,500 babies born in the

John Radcliffe last

year, five were positive with HIV positive. These figures were drawn from the anonymous testing of every baby born at the hospital to monitor the spread of Aids. In youngsters, symptoms include repeated weight loss, diarrhoea and chest infections.

Figures not yet published stated that 161 people had Aids in Oxfordshire in 1998, and there were seven Aids-related deaths.

SOURCE IS TRACED TO 'BUSH FOOD'

Chimpanzees slaughtered for food in West Central Africa were the original source of HIV and Aids, a new scientific study has revealed.

British experts involved in the fight against Aids and HIV welcomed the apparent breakthrough in the study of the virus.

They said that because the chimpanzee is genetically almost identical to human beings, the discovery may help in the long-term search for a cure.

The study was conducted by an international team of scientists at the University of Alabama in the United States. They traced the virus which has infected more than 30 million people to the sub-species Pan troglodytes troglodytes (CORR), often killed by local people for the pot - so-called 'bush meat'increasingly used as meat since the Second World War.

Dr Beatrice Hahn said: "Chimpanzees are frequently hunted for food, especially in West Central Africa, and we believe that HIV-1 was introduced into the human population through exposure to blood during hunting and field dressing of these animals."

Story date: Thursday 04 February

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