While less noise is made now about HIV/Aids, the organisation says young women between age 18 and 24 remain more vulnerable. According to Neliswa Nkwali, provincial chair of People Living with HIV, this is the result of old men dating young girls. While it is relatively easy to identify HIV positive women, she said it remained a challenge to trace men.
n the eve of World Aids Day, 1 December, the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has voiced its concern over ongoing discrimination against people living with the scourage.
While less noise is made now about HIV/Aids, the organisation says young women between age 18 and 24 remain more vulnerable.
According to Neliswa Nkwali, provincial chair of People Living with HIV, this is the result of old men dating young girls. While it is relatively easy to identify HIV positive women, she said it remained a challenge to trace men.
“Men are reluctant to go to the health facilities, and don’t do so until they become very sick. Women, on the other hand, are easier to find because they visit health facilities every month for contraceptives and other things. It is easy to lure them. Eight of 10 women between 14 and 24 years old coming in for tests at our health facilities are infected with HIV.” Nkwali challenged communities to embrace more wholesome behaviours that value the humanity of the individual.
She said many people have asked questions about whereabouts of the TAC, accusing the organisation of being silent while people are fighting the virus.
Nkwali explained that in 2015 the organisation changed its strategy and started working indoors to keep government officials accountable. But it was still active, she said.
On Thursday 30 November TAC is hosting a World Aids Day event at OR Tambo Hall, in Mew Way, Khayelitsha.
“Some of our stakeholders are involved,” said Nkwali. “Many people know TAC as a vibrant organisation that is all over the media. But after we noticed most of our people have access to the ARVs we decided to change the strategy and focus more on the government and other agencies that are donors to keep them accountable.We sat down and came up with a monitoring and evaluation programme called Ritshidze.”
Ritshidze means “saving our lives” in TshiVenda.
Nkwali said the aim of the programme is to keep the South African government and aid agencies accountable for improving overall HIV and tuberculosis (TB) service delivery.
However, she said, the TAC still faces challenges, such as the escalated number of young women infected with HIV and decreases in the number of government condoms distributed in public spaces due to lack of funds.
Nkwali said the organisation was collaborating with others in trying to resolve the challenges it faces.
“There are organisations that have money but no foot soldiers. Currently, we have a programme called Youth in Prevention, which also takes into account gender-based violence and HIV. We want to educate young people about HIV. Most of them think that to be HIV+ one must show symptoms, not realising they can be HIV+, but their viral load undetected.” She said there was a huge gap between girls and boys; in most cases only the girls are taken care of and the boys left behind.
“We are calling on all organisations to empower young boys. Young boys go to health facilities only when they show symptoms of sexually transmitted infections [STIs].”
Nkwali emphasised HIV/Aids stigma still exists, although at a lesser scale. She said with some people, once they test positive mental illness, such as depression, sets in.
Abulele Dyasi, communications officer for the Department of Health’s Khayelitsha Eastern sub-structure, said the total recorded number of people in Khayelitsha living with HIV for the last three years is 7 977. She said the highest infection rate was among men and women between ages 29 and 49.
“We encourage everyone who is sexually active to be tested for HIV. By knowing your status and following your prescribed treatment plan you can continue to live a healthy and active life.”
Dyasi said people diagnosed with HIV have access to free world-class treatment and care in the province.
