(NewsWorthy.news) – Hydeia Broadbent, a woman born with HIV/AIDS who became a prominent advocate for understanding the disease, has died.
The activist for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) education and awareness was 39 years old at the time of her death on Tuesday February 20, according to her father.
She became known across the United States when, before the age of 10, she started speaking out publicly about the disease she was born with as well as the tension and debate surrounding it at the time of the 1990s.
A Facebook post from Loren Broadbent, Hydeia’s adoptive father, shared with the public that the young activist died following a life impacted by the virus “since birth.” He mentioned his daughter’s “numerous challenges” during life and her commitment to sharing “hope and positivity through education” of the disease with which she lived.
The late activist’s father, who described her as a “beloved friend, mentor and daughter,” did not provide additional details about her death. Confirmation of the woman’s death was provided by the coroner’s office in Clark County, which said that she passed away in Las Vegas.
The place of her death was the same city in which she was adopted by Loren and his wife Patricia as an infant. Her infection with HIV was unknown before she fell sick as a three-year-old. Two years later, she had already developed AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome). The chronic health condition, caused by HIV infection, leads to loss of immune cells and deteriorates the body’s ability to defend itself against infection and illness.
Broadbent was only six weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in. She had previously been abandoned in a hospital in Las Vegas by her birth mother. When the toddler became very sick, her adoptive family found out that her biological mother also had a son, who was similarly abandoned at the hospital. Broadbent tested positive for AIDS after her biological mother and brother tested positive for the same disease.
Following in her adoptive mother’s footsteps, Broadbent became an advocate for HIV/AIDS awareness and education and is remembered for moments such as a 1992 TV special in which the 7-year-old teamed up with NBA star Magic Johnson, who was contracted the infection from intimate behavior rather than acquiring it in the womb.
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