Search South Africa News

Categories
ZA Top News in South Africa Regions

‘I don’t want my boy to be positive’: pregnant women face sky-high viral loads as cuts hit HIV care in Africa

As the withdrawal of US funding disrupts treatment and halts crucial research in South Africa, clinics fear the resurgence of mother-to-child transmission of the virus

Photographs by Chris de Beer-Procter

Zola Madikane* was born HIV positive in 2004. Put on antiretrovirals (ARVs) as a baby, she has been on the life-saving medication ever since and has lived a normal life. No longer. “Now, I have a problem,” she says.

For most of her life her viral load (the amount of HIV in her blood) has been undetectable. “When I went for my February clinic visit, I didn’t get my pills. They told me ‘shortage of staff’ and ‘come back another day’. I came back a few times, but it was the same story.” Continue reading…
http://dlvr.it/TLP33p

Search South Africa News