I am 34 years old now, but eight years ago I thought I was going to die. I sell vegetables in Site C, Khayelitsha, where I make almost R1 000 per month and I would not be able to do this if I was not on ARVs [anti-retrovirals].
Before I started taking ARVs, it was difficult to sell vegetables — my body was tired, it was difficult to walk and my joints were sore.
ARVs saved my life, but I am worried because the doctors at my clinic in Site C are unhappy. When I ask them why they’re unhappy, they say that their salaries are not very good.
For me, the ARV roll-out is working due to Doctors without Borders and the government.
I get my treatment on time whenever I go to the clinic. The doctors monitor me on a monthly basis by taking three bottles of blood for a CD4 count [which measures the immune system’s strength], for the viral load, for the bone marrow and liver and to check for any side effects. But I am lucky — I have never had any side effects.
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel should increase the budget for health care and for those people and children who receive grants. And we need a hospital here in Khayelitsha because the clinic is always full.
I have been living with HIV for eight years, but I needed to go for treatment in 2001 when I weighed 29kg, because my CD4 count was 174 and my viral load was 240 000. I was very, very sick.
After taking the tablets for a few months, my CD4 count went up and today it is around 649.
But I am worried about these tablets being so expensive, it’s almost R1 500 [per month] for every patient. I get a disability grant from the government, but if the drugs were not free, I would not be able to buy food or pay my son’s school fees.
I have taken my tablets every day for all these years without missing one day because I know how important it is to take ARVs and if I don’t take it, they will not work in my body any more.
You can’t take the treatment without food because it makes you feel sick and you lose your strength.
In our community, the stigma is not a big thing because most people know about HIV.
The prevention messages don’t work sometimes because some young ones see that there are HIV clinics so they feel they don’t have to use condoms, but other ones use condoms because they see so many people getting sick.
My life on ARVs is good. I have a girlfriend who is HIV-negative and she knows that I am HIV-positive. We use condoms every time we have sex. People on ARVs can have a normal life.
As told to Nawaal Deane