Fr. JP Mokgethi-Heath – Lets get serious about HIV
Today is World AIDS day, the 15th one since I first tested HIV+, the 15th since I was initiated onto treatment. I was working in a parish in Johannesburg. There was no treatment available to the general public in South Africa at the time. When I tested HIV+ I was also diagnosed with AIDS, and as such my doctor told me that if we did not manage to get me onto treatment I had between 3 and 9 months to live. It had become possible to buy treatment privately through the pharmacies, but the cost of that medication was 1 ½ times my monthly salary as a priest. There was no medical fund to assist. The only chance was to get onto a drug trial, and thank God, my doctor was able to arrange this.
It had taken time to get tested. My partner at the time did not feel comfortable to go and get tested, and it was only when he started losing his sight that we took the joint decision that we needed to go and get tested. Even so, just accessing the blood tests necessary for both of us to get tested cost me almost a ¼ of my monthly salary. It was a different time and there were so many barriers to knowing your HIV status and even more barriers to living positively with HIV. It was an easy understanding; if you got HIV it would develop into AIDS and you would die. We had heard of treatment being developed in Europe and America, but doctors from “the West” were adamant that it would be useless trying to treat HIV in Africa, because “Africans did not have watches” – they would not be able to be regular with taking their medfication. The irony of course is that when eventually treatment was brought to Africa, it far surpassed the 70% average adherence rates achieved in Europe or North America; Africa proved to achieve an average adherence of over 90%. It was simple, this was our one chance – if we messed it up we would have no second chance.
One of the biggest challenges in addressing HIV holistically has been the fact that the majority of people living with HIV have no idea. This remains as true in 2015 as it has been throughout the history of this pandemic. We have at least moved to a place internationally where about 45% of people living with HIV have been tested and now know their status. I do not know of an estimate in this regard in Sweden, but the Swedish statistics are that about 450 people test HIV+ every year in Sweden, and the majority of them are already sick, or have developed AIDS. This means that they have been living with HIV for 10 or more years before they present themselves for testing. The adverts around Stockholm at this time are very clear – “HIV today is not what is was yesterday”; and this is true. Today we know that the treatment is highly effective. People like me, living with HIV for more than 15 years, are proof of that. And the news in Sweden in this regard is extremely good, every person who tests HIV+ will immediately be initiated onto treatment which will mean two things, firstly they will be able to totally manage HIV for the normal extent of their lives, but secondly as soon as the number of viruses in the blood has been reduced to undetectable the risks of transmitting HIV is negligible.
To achieve this amazing gain needs one thing only – you need to know your HIV status, and that is where the challenge continues to lie. The majority of people being infected with HIV in Sweden are no longer the gay community, it has now become people in heterosexual relationships. This is a group who generally do not even perceive that they are at risk of getting HIV. We know this because most gay men in Sweden who test HIV+ present early in the infection, were as most heterosexual people present late.
So this World AIDS Day, do something that you might not have done before, go and get tested for HIV. In the case of HIV I can assure you ignorance is not bliss! Knowledge is power, if oyu find yourself to be HIV+ we can help you live a full and productive life, if you find yourself HIV- we can give you the information you need to stay that way. IF YOU ARE HIV IGNORANT, you are a danger to yourself and those you love.
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