19/02/2013
Agnes* is 45 years old, she has been
widowed twice by HIV. It was not until after she was widowed he second time
that she got herself tested, with encouragement from her neighbours. Her first
test came back positive; she has been living with HIV for 5 years and takes ART
medication. Her CD4 count currently reads at 316 (the recommended count for
good health is 500-1,000) anything below 350 should be considered serious and
treated. When she first discovered she was positive, she was very stressed, she
suffered many illnesses due to the stress, as a consequence she has lost a lot
of weight (this is also a side effect of ART) she currently weighs 37kg. She
has 3 children, aged 10, 11 and 18 – none of them have been tested for HIV. She
struggles to pay for their tutoring and general living.
Until recently she lives in a nice
compound, renting one of the homes, but when her HIV status was discovered she
was evicted. She now has a small home, during the day it is a coffee place, and
at night it is their sleeping area. She has suffered a lot of discrimination, she
says the only companionship she has is her OSSA counsellor, and God.
She says in the future she would like
some fridges and coffee machines for her small business, and that her advice to
anyone else in her situation would be to get tested as soon as possible because
she spent a long time suffering from various ailments without knowing her
status.
Kx
*Names have been changed to protect
identity.
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