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Living with HIV/Aids: living on borrowed time
Bertha Shoko, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
May 27, 2007

RITA Gada was featured in Standardhealth sometime in April this year. Many will remember this sad story about how Rita's husband ill-treated her because of her HIV positive status. He refused to sleep in the same blankets with her or share the same utensils with her and, even held a gun to her head to force her to leave their matrimonial home. But Rita has stayed on because she has nowhere else to go and argues she has every right to that home, as much as he has. She is unemployed and survives on a weekly food pack from a local support group because her husband has stopped providing for her.

As though her marital problems were not burdensome enough, Rita is presently living dangerously on a CD4 Count cell of 51 and has no access to Anti-Retroviral drugs (ARVs). A healthy body requires a CD4 cell count of 200 or more. After reacting to the first and second line ARVs, doctors say Rita now needs third line combinations and these are not available in Zimbabwe and many parts of Africa.

Although a local pharmacy offered to import the drug for her, Rita cannot afford the cost. Exit Rita: Enter Samuel Mushoriwa from Chitungwiza who tested HIV positive in 2004. Samuel is also living dangerously on a CD4 count cell of 49.

Unlike Rita's spouse, his wife is very supportive. She tested HIV negative and they have agreed to live positively.

But Samuel's problem is that he cannot access the free ARVs and has been on the waiting list of state-run programmes since December 2005. Having lost his job due to continued absenteeism as a result of ill-health, Samuel cannot afford to buy ARVs from the private sector. As the economic and political situation in the country worsens, access to ARV treatment and general medical care for people living with HIV and Aids (PLWAs) is still not assured in most cases.

This is the reason why Rita and Samuel were among the hundreds of Aids activists gathered at Chitungwiza town centre on Wednesday as part of the Global AIDS Week of Action commemorations arranged by organisations such as the Social Forum and Zimbabwe National Network of People Living With HIV and Aids (ZNPP+). The Global Aids Week of Action is commemorated each year from 20-25 May. The week provides an opportunity for activists to unite, generate political pressure and demand a stronger response to HIV and Aids from their respective governments.

The Global Aids week began with the International Aids Candlelight Memorial Day. On this day activists light candles in recognition and memory of those who have died of Aids around the world.

And, if the government of Zimbabwe fails to heed these activists' call for action, then PLWAs like Rita and Samuel could be living on borrowed time.

Speaking at the commemorations on Wednesday, Sebastian Chinhaire, ZNNP+ provincial chairperson for Harare province, called for greater commitment by the government and the National Aids Council to make available treatment to hundreds of PLWAs in need of ARVs.

Chinhaire said in the run-up to the 2008 March elections PLWAs would be looking to vote for a political party with the most attractive package that aims to mitigate the effects of the HIV and Aids. His fellow activists cheered as the tough-talking Chinhaire called for the government to ease the plight of people living with HIV and Aids:

"We want access to treatment, ARVs (first, second line and third line combinations, all of them), we want reasonably priced antibiotics to treat opportunistic infections that flood our weak immune systems. We want paediatric formulations for children who are infected.

"Many of us have lost our jobs because of ill-health; we want to improve the quality of our lives. We must be given an opportunity to start our own income-generating projects.We are going to vote for a party that sympathises and feels our pain."

Standing next to Rita and Samuel as they raised their hands and joined the clapping, whistling and ululation I felt deeply moved. Their voices echoed with so much hope that it was hard to believe. Their frail and weak bodies surprisingly let out so much energy that I was left cursing myself, feeling the shame of a system that has betrayed brave men and women.

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