Top 10 Female Celebrities With HIV-Positive : HIV is typically transmitted through unprotected sex or intravenous drug use, and is often associated with groups such as promiscuous gay men, illicit drug users, and sex workers. For these reasons, and also because of fears of contagion, people living with HIV are frequently subjected to stigma and discrimination. Publicity campaigns around the world have aimed to counter HIV-related prejudices and misconceptions and to replace them with an accurate understanding that helps to prevent new infections. These efforts have been aided by various celebrities – including American basketball star Magic Johnson and South African judge Edwin Cameron – who have publicly announced that they are HIV-positive.
Here is a list of top 10 Female Celebrities With HIV-Positive
10. Elizabeth Glaser
Elizabeth Glaser was a major American AIDS activist and child advocate married to actor and director Paul Michael Glaser. She contracted HIV very early in the modern AIDS epidemic after receiving an HIV-contaminated blood transfusion in 1981 while giving birth. Like other HIV-infected mothers, Glaser unknowingly passed the virus to her infant daughter, Ariel, through breastfeeding. Ariel was born in 1981 and died in 1988. The Glasers’ son, Jake, born in 1984, contracted HIV from his mother in utero, but has lived into adulthood. Glaser died in 1994.
9. Dolzura Cortez
Ma. Dolzura Cortez was the first Filipino AIDS victim who came out in the open to tell about her life and how she acquired the AIDS virus. Her life story was made into the 1993 Filipino film Dahil Mahal Kita (English “Because I Love You: The Dolzura Cortez Story”), directed by Laurice Guillen, screenplay by Ricardo Lee, starring Vilma Santos, Christopher de Leon, Charito Solis, Maila Gumila, Mikee Villanueva and Jackie Aquino.
8. Marvelyn Brown
Marvelyn Brown, is an African-American author and AIDS activist. She is the founder of Marvelous Connections, an HIV/AIDS organization founded in 2006. She wrote the autobiography The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive, which tells her story as a young heterosexual woman living with HIV. She has delivered public speeches and made public appearances that impacted audiences in the United States, Bermuda, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, the Virgin Islands, South Africa, Tanzania, and Rwanda.
7. Rebekka Armstrong
Rebekka Lynn Armstrong is an American HIV/AIDs activist and former model and bodybuilder. She was Playboy Playmate of the Month for September 1986. Eight years later, she was the first Playmate to publicly announce that she is HIV-positive.
She said that she had known she was infected since 1989, but spent two years after her diagnosis escaping into substance abuse. By the time of the publication of The Advocate article, she had come out as a lesbian and decided to educate others about HIV/AIDS, especially among lesbian and bisexual women.
6. Kimberly Bergalis
Kimberly Ann Bergalis was an American woman who was one of six patients purportedly infected with HIV by dentist David J. Acer, who had the disease AIDS. This incident is the first known case of clinical transmission of HIV.
5. Koyo Bala
In a 2011 interview with DRUM magazine, Bala spoke openly about living with HIV. He said he had received the diagnosis in 2010 and had made a commitment to help others in the same situation.
“I am HIV-positive, and as a celebrity and someone who is openly gay, it is important to come out. I want to use my bubbly personality to help those struggling to come to terms with their status and instil a sense of hope” she said.
4. Criselda Kananda
Radio DJ Criselda Kananda, was diagnosed HIV positive more than 13 years ago, when she was seven months pregnant. Today she is a mother of 3, motivational speaker, professional counsellor, former nurse, medical underwriter and serves on the board of the South African National AIDS Council.
3. Lesego Motsepe
Lesego Motsepe who for 10 years played Lettie Matabane in Isidingo, disclosed her status on World AIDS Day in 2011. She said “Our society had made this virus a monster and all it is, is a virus. I’m doing it for the voiceless people out there who just found out today, and know that I’ve got their back.” Sadly Motsepe stopped using life-saving ARVs in 2012. She died in 2014.
2. Musa ‘Queen’ Njoko
Gospel artist Musa ‘Queen’ Njoko publicly disclosed her HIV-positive status in 1995. She was 22 when she was diagnosed, at a time when treatment was not available in South Africa. She faced a lot of stigma and hostility but also found support.
1. Amanda Blake
She was a member of one of the greatest running television shows, Gunsmoke. Cast as the hot redhead, Miss Kitty Russell, on America’s popular western, Blake also performed in shows such as The Love Boat, Hart to Hart and The New Dragnet.
Though many knew that Blake’s smoke habit had led to her 1977 investigation of oral cancer, few knew that she also had AIDS. Many thought from the reports by her doctor, family and friends that cancer challenged her life on August 16, 1989. However, Blake’s death certificate indicated a fully different story as it informed that she passed away due to CMV hepatitis, an AIDS related disease. It was definitely confirmed by Blake’s family that she had got HIV from her fourth husband, Mark Spaeth, who died in 1985.
Must Read : Top 10 Male Celebrities With HIV-Positive
Top 10 Female Celebrities With HIV-Positive
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