“My name is Busisiwe Beko, I am 33 years old. I am from Transkai, the Eastern Cape. I’ve got two kids, my eldest is a boy, nine years old, the second is a girl, two years old.

This is my story:
I was pregnant with my second child in 2005. I was not feeling well - I was sweating at night, feverish and I was having chest pains. I went to the clinic and I thought maybe I was pregnant but they refused to do a pregnancy test. They said I must do an HIV test. They tested me and I was so shocked when they came back with the result saying I was HIV positive. And then I did my pregnancy test and I found out I was pregnant. I was so worried because I’ve got two positives now: I am pregnant and HIV positive. The pains in my chest were getting worse and I was still sweating a lot. They gave me some antibiotic tablets and asked me to come back a week later. They said I must cough sputum but I said ‘I have no sputum’. I asked them to do X-rays instead but they said they couldn’t do it because I was pregnant. I was getting worse, getting thin and very weak. I had to sign a form before they would send me to the hospital for an X-ray. The X-ray came out and the doctor said I had TB. Now I was very, very worried because I have got TB, I’ve got HIV and I am pregnant.

I went back to the doctor who told me it would be better if I got rid of the baby because I had HIV and TB and I was very weak. But I couldn’t do it, and decided to go to the clinic in Khayelitsha.

There they sent me to the hospital to do the HIV test again and routine pregnancy checks. The MSF doctor did my CD4 count to check if I should start the ARV medicines. The results came back saying that my CD4 count was very low. This was October. I was already on my TB treatment which I had started the month before, but my baby wasn’t due until December. I remember looking at the calendar and thinking: I am not going to make it, I will die before.

On the second of December I delivered my baby via C-section and it was a girl. I named her Othandwayo, which means ‘to be loved’. When she was one month old she was checked for HIV. I was crying and praying. The doctor came in and found me kneeling down on the floor and praying.

When I finished she asked “Is everything ok?”
I said “Everything is fine doctor”.
And she said “Can you read?”
I said “Yes”.
She gave me the paper to read and asked “Can you read it here?” And she said “Your daughter is HIV negative”.
I was so relieved!!!
The doctor said: “You were on PMTCT and then it just goes well”.

I was supposed to finish my TB treatment in February, but unfortunately the doctor at the clinic found that the treatment was not working, my TB was resisting. It was an MDR-TB. I was so shocked because it was the first time I’d heard about this MDR, I knew nothing about it.

The doctor booked a bed at the central hospital for MDR-TB patients. But I said I couldn’t stay at the hospital because there was nobody to take care of my children. I said I wanted to be treated as an outpatient and I had to wait for three weeks till the medication arrived at the clinic, because normally there are no MDR-TB drugs at the clinic level. When my daughter was five months old the doctors discovered that she had MDR-TB too. She was admitted to the hospital straight away and that was when they admitted me too. But I stayed there only for three weeks, because in May the first phase of my treatment was already coming to an end.

When I was discharged, I was sad and crying because I had to leave my baby alone at the hospital for six months! My baby was discharged on the first of December and I said thanks to God because the next day was her birthday. I promised the nurses that I was going to look after her, that we were both going to continue with our treatments.

The doctors at the clinic were so very pleased because they said I was a good patient, I was looking after myself and my baby and I was doing whatever they told me too. After 18 months from the date I was diagnosed, the doctors discovered my MDR-TB has been cured. And it is not easy to be cured from MDR TB, because it is difficult to follow the treatment.

Now my baby girl is well and she is going to finish the last phase of her treatment in November. She finished the intensive phase at the hospital where she had an injection and tablets everyday. Then the continuation phase is when you just get the tablets - four tablets a day. I still take her to the clinic every morning to get her medication, then I take her to daycare and I come to work.

Now I work with MSF in Khayelitsha as an MDR-TB counselor. I know what MDR is all about. I counsel patients, visit them at their homes and at the hospital for MDR-TB patients. I say they mustn’t be scared or afraid. The treatment is there and is free. There is nothing they must be scared of. They must do the treatment and if they see the side effects they must speak to the doctors. I want to tell people to adhere to the treatment. I want to help save people.”

Busisiwe Beko

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