She was ready for the world. Single, attractive, healthy, 20-years-old, and a freshman in college with a son- barely one.
Shortly after classes began, her smile captured the attention of a guy on campus.
Their relationship grew-- turned sexual. Shana Cozad thought everything was fine.
"I thought you just needed to ask all the right questions,” said Cozad.
But what she did not know was that her new boyfriend had full-blown AIDS.
They’d agreed to intercourse without protection. She didn't discover his secret, until they'd broken up.
"My immune system dropped to an aids diagnoses within one year,” said Cozad.
He told her he kept it to himself because he wanted to pass the disease along. He was angry. He didn't want to be with her, he just wanted someone to die with him. FOX23’s Frank Wiley asked, “When did you accept the fact that it was true?”
She responded; "after the third time I was tested."
The results shocked her parents; they didn't talk to her for seven years.
All she had was her son, as she battled excruciating body aches, rashes, fatigue, and a strict regimen of 16-pills per day.
It all happened so fast, and the numbers prove, it’s happening more.
"There’s different descriptions about whether it’s better screening, or actual increase in numbers," said Colen Aires-Griffen, with Youth Services.
That life changing news Cozad got from her ex was the last time she talked to him.
"I did a people search and found his death certificate,” said Cozad.
She says the anger has since faded. She’s now married and has three healthy kids. She figures she has more to live for, but now spends time warning people protection must go beyond just asking the right questions.
Cozad has gotten married, and has since mended the relationship with her parents. She says her pregnancies were still an option because the risk of her passing the disease to her children was less than 1 percent.
Chances of her husband being infected are low as well since they use protection and her viral load is undetectable.
There are free HIV and STD screening sites in Green Country.
