The troubled former Two and a Half Men star, Charlie Sheen, revealed Tuesday on the “Today” show that he is HIV positive. “I’m here to admit that I am in fact HIV positive,” stammered Sheen. “And I have to put a stop to this onslaught—this barrage of attacks and sub-truths—very harmful and mercurial stories that are about threatening the health of so many others that couldn’t be farther from the truth”
Sheen told Matt Lauer that he has known of his infection for close to four years after experiencing a sequence of cluster headaches and night sweats. Though, he does not know how he contracted the virus.
For those who don’t know, HIV or Human Immunodeficiency Virus, is usually contracted through unprotected sex and the sharing of needles. If left untreated, this life-long virus attacks the T cells in your body eventually leaving you to develop AIDS, or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Not all who are diagnosed with HIV advance to this final stage.
Sheen was joined by his doctor, Robert Huisenga, to confirm that he has been following a strict regiment of four pills daily to prevent further development of the virus. With two reports of unprotected sex since Sheen’s diagnosis, Huisenga said “Individuals who are optimally treated with undetected viral loads, (the risk is) incredibly low to transmit the virus.”
After contracting the virus he revealed to close individuals, which he believed he could trust, of his condition. The backlash resulted in Sheen shelling out upwards of $10 million to silence the rumors. “It’s a hard three letters to absorb,” Sheen said. “It’s a turning point in one’s life”
Charlie Sheen is hopeful that by going public it will help radiate the stigma of HIV. He spoke of his new responsibility to bettering himself and helping other people come forward with their own diagnosis. “It is no longer a death sentence,” Dr. Stephen Boswell CEO of Boston’s Fenway Health spoke of HIV. “It’s a very different time now, most people just diagnosed with HIV will live an almost normal life span if they get an early diagnosis, appropriate care and stay on their medications.”