Children on ARVs

In South Africa today 600,000 children are living with HIV but only 50,000 are on ARVs. In this episode of Siyayinqoba Beat It! we examine why the Government has made it a priority to provide access to treatment for children. First we meet a grandmother who is raising her HIV positive grandson after his mother passed away. Then a young mother in Mount Fletcher talks about caring for her daughter who started ARV treatment at age one.

Two years ago Selina Mvulani's daughter, who was HIV positive, passed away. Since then Selina has taken it upon herself to raise her daughter's children, including Mbongiseni, who is also living with HIV. Mbongiseni first started to get sick when he was six months old. After his mother died he was in hospital for a month and the doctors found that his CD4 count was very low and his viral count very high. Selina went to the hospital in Queenstown where she was shown how to give Mbongiseni his treatment. She now wakes her grandson up early - at 06h00 every day - so he can eat breakfast and be ready to take his ARVs at 07h00 before leaving for school.

At school, Mbongiseni's teacher talks about the challenges facing HIV positive children in an area with high poverty and unemployment, where parents "are not open" about disclosing their children's HIV status to the school. It is left to many grandparents like Selina to care for these children. However, with the guidance of his grandmother and teacher, it is clear that Mbongiseni fully understands his condition. So too do his friends with whom he enjoys playing football. Since he began his treatment Mbongiseni has not been sick.

It is stories like Mbongiseni's which highlight why children should start treatment at an early age - a child with HIV can become sick easily and the child mortality rate due to HIV is very high in South Africa. According to Dr Trevor Majoro, the situation is urgent: "We can't wait, people's lives are in danger." The Government has responded and the new treatment protocols, started in April, mean that all infants testing positive must start therapy before the age of one.

However, as Dr Majoro explains, it is not just access to treatment but also educated caregivers which are crucial in saving children's lives. Caregivers should have a "nurturing personality" and be knowledgeable about the medication, their child's behavior and any side effects or opportunistic infections that that child may develop. Both Selina and Philiswa Valashiya, the young mother featured in our second insert, possess these characteristics. Philiswa is living with HIV as is her daughter Alucedo.

Philiswa says, "It hurt me because I didn't expect her to get HIV but I accepted it because she is my child and I love her very much. I've become very committed to whatever medication she must receive, including her ARVs. I will treat my child until she's healthy." Since starting treatment Alucedo is now much healthier - whereas before she was too skinny, she is now more active and has started crawling. Philiswa says she is "happy to see my child doing so much better because of the ARVs and I hope other parents can learn from this." Philiswa and Selena's stories show the importance for children of combining access to treatment with knowledgeable and loving caregivers.