BY MEGHANN BIGG

CHARLIE Sheen has disclosed that he is HIV positive, in a television interview that followed weeks of speculation about his condition.

He said on NBC’s Today show that he had learned about the diagnosis ‘roughly four years ago’, adding ‘it’s a hard three letters to absorb'.

Sheen claimed that people who knew his HIV positive status had extorted money from him to keep it a secret, and the Hollywood star said he would stop paying them now that his HIV status was public.

Sheen’s Doctor, Robert Huizenga said he had an undetectable level of HIV in his blood and was ‘absolutely healthy’.

He said that they were mainly concerned about Sheen’s history of substance abuse and depression and how those things could negatively affect his HIV treatment. Sheen said he was not currently using drugs but was drinking alcohol.

The actor’s health status has been an open secret in Hollywood in recent weeks, since the show business website Radar Online published a report about a Hollywood ‘megastar’ being HIV positive. The report did not name Sheen but contained enough clues to ensure he was quickly identified as the most likely subject.

Around 50, 000 people contract HIV in the US each year, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

An estimated 1.2 million people in the US have HIV.

By a very well-known superstar admitting that he has HIV, it may be a warning to others as well as a confidence boost to people that are embarrassed to admit they have it or to even go get checked.

Personally, I don’t think HIV is talked about a lot and you can tell with the public’s reaction to Sheen being diagnosed as HIV positive.

My own reaction was a state of shock, as this disease is not talked about and by a very well-known personality confessing that he has it openly, it was a shock to everyone.

This shows that, if this disease was talked about more, it would elicit more people coming out.