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nearly every family since the first case was reported in Zimbabwe in 1984.
As the high-level conference on National HIV and Aids closes in Harare today, we need to focus on where we are going and less of what we have covered.
With 650 000 adults and children living with HIV in need of the life-saving drugs what are the mitigatory factors that we are taking to ensure that these lives are not lost as they wait their turn to be saved?
True the Aids Levy is a noble idea, but what package have we added to this since its inception in the mid-90s without taking donor funds into consideration? The conference should help in this regard.
My heart aches when it is a child who is on the waiting list. They were born like that – and it is the duty of every responsible person to see that these are enrolled on ART without further delay.
Today 23 000 innocent children are in urgent need of a chance to live. Nationally 400 000 people are on active ART, leaving even a greater number still in need of the ARVs. When we ask everyone to know their HIV status yet we have such scaring figures on the waiting list, one is tempted to argue: “Why do you want to kill me with stress when you have people languishing on the waiting list?”
The conference must bring a positive outlook to this otherwise gloomy picture. We pin our hope on the stakeholders as they continue charting the way forward.
Here I run a touching extract from an e-mail, one of several that filter through everyday.
I write to acknowledge the impact your articles have had on my life and I believe on many other people’s lives. I am more attached after just discovering that my 15-year-old niece has turned out to be HIV positive. To make matters worse, it’s a transmission from mother-to-child as she lost her mother 10 years ago.
It is quite devastating for both of us, her guardians and herself to accept this. She is very quiet, obedient and there is no suspicion that she indulged. Kindly assist with advice as to where she and us can access counselling and support.
The company I work for does not have a chronic illness facility on its medical aid scheme so we cannot use the medical aid facility for her new condition. It may, in fact, be an issue for you to tackle, lobbying for either medical aid organisations to ensure blanket cover for such schemes, instead of the current situation whereby employer companies make a choice.
Even the Government may have to make it a law to avoid undue suffering and discrimination. Imagine I was told that if I wanted my medical aid to cover that then I have to convince the company I work for to migrate to chronic scheme. Obviously, those not benefiting will resist this rise in their premiums.
This only came after my niece succumbed to several infections and we had never suspected the transmission all along. You may never know how many lives you have impacted and changed. As Nelson Handerson said, “The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit”.
Another reader responded to the last article where I said one’s status was not a passport to compatibility. Most people who are HIV positive believe that when they are of the same status, then they can live in harmony.
Love does not stand on just one’s HIV status. The man wrote in saying that it is better for two of the same status to tie the knot than to have a discordant couple getting married. He said he found out his wife’s status after they had tied the knot and it was unfortunate. Today the two are still together but he spoke of the heartache and mistrust that arises from such events.
He spoke of how a simple discussion ends up being blown out of proportion.
“Even commenting on an advert that speaks on HIV sees us ending up arguing. In the end, I feel she could be better off with someone of the same status as her,” said the frustrated man.
I can hear grumblings and questions flying out. “What is he still doing with that woman?” ‘advisers’ would say.
He said despite all these differences he still loves his wife and is prepared to take further counselling which should help them in their marriage as a discordant couple.
As the National Aids Conference closes what have we achieved as a nation and where do young people like the “niece” above stand?
When we say everyone should know their HIV status it is such cases that we want to tackle and help.
It is not worth it that an innocent child suffers poor health which could have been avoided had everyone’s status been checked on time and timeous medical intervention given.
The President called on responsible behaviour and castigated some national leaders as the drivers of HIV.
He called on men to be satisfied with their spouses questioning why even men who knew that they were HIV positive still put women at risk by engaging in extra-marital affairs even getting into polygamous unions.
I agree. As a nation we ought to make the prevention and the spread of new HIV infections everyone’s duty.
Why is it that even today despite the thousands of awareness campaigns and messages we still get accusations and counter-accusations when one gets infected.
The problem with most people is that they rely on the “bus stop” diagnosis.
Seeing a curvy woman is enough to think one is HIV negative which is unfortunate. Were there to be a Miss Curvy contest, I would beat the contestants 102 percent yet my status is Code 1.
Answering to suggestive questions when stupid men propose to all beautiful women they meet is a common experience for many women.
On telling one that: “Hey no wonder young people are dying.” The answer is: “It’s worth dying for.”
Is this worth dying for in a right state of mind?
For men another problem is when a pregnant woman tests HIV negative and the baby is safe that they too conclude that they are HIV negative which is unfounded.
One man from my home area found out the hard way that discordant couples are common.
The man who had been unwell for sometime flatly refused to have an HIV test on the basis that his wife had recently given birth to a bouncing baby girl and both were fit and HIV negative.
So how could he be even thinking of an HIV test – his illness was “either doctors did not understand what they were treating” or “he was bewitched”, so he said.
“I flatly refused to have an HIV test as my wife had given birth to our fourth child and this time aChihera completed the cycle since I had three boys, so I was over the moon,” he said.
“When the nurse suggested that my failure to respond to medication could be due to a compromised immune system I thought that that was madness,” said the man.
He said he only agreed to be tested when the nurse put her foot down.
“I took the test and was more than surprised. I tested HIV positive,” he said.
The man said he was lucky in that the required tests were done at the same centre and he was started on medication in no time as there was no waiting list at the mission hospital.
“I was counselled and told that from then on we had to use protection since I risked infecting my wife. She came for another test and she tested HIV negative again,” he said.
“The question is how did that happen? She is negative up to this day. Maybe its God’s way to have someone remain with the children,” he said.
I pointed out that his being HIV positive did not mean he would die first, as long as he adhered to medication that ensured he lived long, just like his wife. Death is inevitable but this time not from a compromised immune system. May we stop the avoidable deaths as we all get to know our status.
The conference theme was “Elimination of New HIV infections in Children, Keeping Mothers Alive”. May all mothers understand that it is cruel to infect their babies in this day and age if they do not take precautions by enrolling on the PMTCT programme.
In all your endeavours get correct understanding.
Online Reporter