HIV positive stories from Zambia

04 September 2008

Since 2004, MSF has been running an HIV/AIDS clinic (Kawama Clinic) on the premises of Kapiri District Hospital and also works in a total of 12 rural health centres in Zambia so people can have access to HIV care close to home. HIV prevalence in the city is estimated to be 22% among the general population and 25% among pregnant women. Here, the patients tell their stories.

Boyd

"It's my life. The stigma is within ourselves, it's inside us, whether we are HIV positive or negative."

“I felt sick in 2005. I had chronic malaria, it was on and off, so I suspected something was wrong. My wife passed away in 2004. She was diabetic. I came to the clinic in Kapiri for VCT. My sister accompanied me – she supported me. I was suspecting I was HIV positive. I was ready for it. I was very sick, my CD4 count was very low – 15. They put me on ART and hospitalised me for four days. On the fifth day they discharged me. In the beginning I had side-effects, my feet went numb, so they changed the medication and put me on second-line treatment. I decided to join the Tugomezia support group, to encourage those that have the same problem. When people look at me negatively, because I’m HIV positive, I don’t give a damn. It’s my life. The stigma is within ourselves, it’s inside us, whether we are HIV positive or negative.”

Gladys

“I was sick, I’d lost my appetite and was not eating, I was itching and had rashes all over my body, I had (and still have) herpes epizoster, I was shaking, I couldn’t hear well, I was vomiting. My sister Hiida came to see me from Kasempa, a district north west in the country, which is very far from here. Hiida’s son called her and told her that I am very sick. So my sister took the bus and came to find me in February 2008. We went to Lusaka first and stayed there until June. But I didn’t see any improvement in my health. So Hiida decided to bring me back here, to Chankomo, where I live.

In June I went for VCT. In July I started the ARVs. It’s been two weeks now since I started the treatment and the improvement is amazing. Now I can hear what people are saying, the rashes have subsided, herpes is still itching but it’s not like before. My appetite is also improving. I’m on a nutritional programme. The doctor in Kapiri prescribed soya flour and cooking oil.”

Mwaba and her baby Gift

“My husband and I felt very sick in 2005. I was feeling very bad, very weak – like I was dead. We wanted to go to a traditional healer and we consulted my mother-in-law. She said there’s a clinic in Kapiri, run by an organisation, and that we should first go there. If they’d fail to cure us in this clinic, then we should go to the traditional healer. It was a long journey to the clinic – more than 10 hours on foot before we could take the bus to Kapiri. We had to stop often to rest, because we didn’t have enough strength for this journey. Finally, we got to the place where we could get the bus.

It was dark when we arrived in Kapiri, and the clinic was closed. We had to walk a long distance again, to Kafwaka, to spend the night at a place where we knew some people. The next day we walked back to the clinic to get tested for HIV. When they said I was positive, I cried for hours, I couldn’t stop weeping, I thought the time has come for me to die. The counsellor let me cry until my eyes dried. Then she explained that there was treatment, she gave me hope. They referred me to the hospital. They told me I also had a sexually transmitted disease. I was in pain, I couldn’t stand up, I had terrible pains in the abdomen and in my back. I also had tuberculosis (TB), which had further weakened my immune system. I started therapy for the TB – it was strong medication. They gave me medicine for two months and told me to come back. Two months later, when I returned to the clinic, I was feeling much better. The people from my village were laughing at me because I was HIV positive. But the information I got from the clinic made me feel more confident. I finished the whole course for TB, which lasted nine months. Then the doctor said I could start ART. I didn’t feel better immediately after I started taking the ARVs. It took eight months before I started feeling like a human being again.

In October 2007 we moved close to the clinic in Kapiri. I was on ART when I got pregnant. When the baby was born, they told me from the clinic to stop breastfeeding in the sixth month – and this is what I did. The baby was tested for HIV when it was one year old. It was found negative! They told me to test it again when it will be one and a half years old. Now I have hope, I have joined a support group, I’m active, I’m contributing to the community, I am confident. When I was sick I almost lost my sight. Now I’m able to see again.”

Gibson

“I live in Kabwe, an hour away from Kapiri by car. In 2000, my wife was sick and I took her to Monze Hospital, which is very far from here. In the hospital, we were told to go for testing. We found out that we were HIV positive. I wasn’t feeling sick at that time. I did the test at an early stage and my CD4 count was fine.

On 2 March 2003 my wife passed away. Her family refused to believe that she was HIV positive, so she didn’t start the treatment. I never understood the reason for her disbelief, the reason she refused to accept her status. I moved from Kabwe to Kapiri after my wife’s death. In 2005 my CD4 count dropped. Up to that point, those five years since I found out I was HIV positive, I was eating well and exercising a lot. They told me in the hospital, “Since you are HIV positive, you have to start living positively,” and this is exactly what I did.

The doctor in the clinic gave me ARVs. Since then, I’ve been taking the pills twice a day, one in the morning and another one in the evening. I feel strong and healthy, I work hard on the farm – I produce tomatoes, cassava, maize and I keep livestock. In 2006 I got married again. My wife is HIV positive too. We had a baby girl in March 2007, and she is negative! My wife was on ARVs when she was pregnant. They told us in the clinic to change the regime she was taking, and to come to the clinic to deliver. When the baby was born, they gave her the syrup. Six months later she was tested and was negative. She will come back for a second test when she will be one and a half years old. My wife breastfed her for two months. But this will be my last child, I don’t want to risk having another one.

I’m working as a volunteer in the hospital, in adherence. I advise and encourage people living with HIV/AIDS to live positively. We also have a tracing system, for those that start ART but stop at some point. We go and ask people that know the patients and thus find them. Then we talk to the patients, explaining that they commit suicide by stopping ART. One of the reasons they stop has to do with the fact that they feel better. Another reason is because they are prayed for, which means that some people promise to them that they will pray for them and they will be cured. I’m also in a support group, we encourage one another, we exchange information, we feel stronger by talking. As for the stigma, you may not change the whole world, but you may change the way you look at the world.”