Television presenter, MC Kats. PPHOTO/COURTESY/FILE
TV presenter and events emcee Edwin Katamba aka MC Kats came out and announced that he was HIV positive a few years back. This came as a surprise to many people but it was relieving that he had to get it off his chest.
Arguably among the best emcees in Uganda, Kats has embarked on doing the best at advocating, advising and inspiring the young generation about HIV and other related diseases.
He has been telling his stories at seminars and a few days ago, he was among the key speakers at strengthening the TB response through the Multi-stakeholders conference at Collin Hotel Mukono recently where he said he was previously living in denial about the disease. Even when he got Tuberculosis, MC Kats says he still didn’t come to terms that he was suffering from HIV.
“One of the first signs that I had HIV was TB but I first didn’t realize it. I went and bought cough syrup but it didn’t help. I started sweating all the time and then would get on and off fever but the weight loss was what forced me to call my mom who advised me to checkup. He was told I was sick but I said no. I’m too cool and good to fall sick. I can’t be sick. I was given TB medication which I was supposed to take for six months. I took it for less than two months,” he said during the conference.
The NBS television After 5 show presenter further added that he couldn’t complete the dosage because ”the medication increased the sweating but the deal breaker was that he was smelling medication every time he urinated and sweated.”
But little did he know that he was making the whole situation worse. ‘
“Immediately I stopped, it took a toll on me because I became worse. The fever put me down and I had to be admitted,” he said.
Then he had to restart the whole process again until he completed the dosage.
He advised people who have TB to consistently take their medication and never give up until the dose is done and further emphasized that having HIV is not a death penalty.
issejjombwe@ug.nationmedia.com