Wilma received a late diagnosis: “Doctor did not think about HIV in married Friezin”

They are hairdressers at home, volunteers in the library or that mother in the schoolyard. And they have HIV. Fortunately, that disease is no longer fatal, but prejudices are still very much alive.

Wilma van der Heide (65) is married and has two children. She is a volunteer of the HIV Association.

Living with HIV

“You’re not up to the bill,” the doctor said, apologizing for the late diagnosis. They examined me thoroughly for a year and a half. No doctor has associated a white Frisian married woman with HIV. Although with my hollow eyes and thin body I looked exactly like an AIDS patient. I barely survived, but due to the virus, I am blind in my right eye and have a stoma.