Following the removal of HIV aid from Nigeria and other countries by U.S. President Donald Trump, individuals in South Africa living with HIV have lamented the excruciating pain they are experiencing.
Recall that on the day Donald Trump was sworn in, he signed an executive order freezing foreign aid for a 90-day period.
However, the order is already having an immediate impact on South Africa’s most vulnerable.
A HIV-positive sex worker while sharing her patient transfer letter from a closed clinic with newsmen said with panic that she is still waiting to be registered at an alternative facility.
That time, there was no medication. The government would tell us to take beetroot and garlic. It was very difficult for the government to give us treatment but we fought very hard to win this battle. Now, the challenge is that we are going back to the struggle,” says Nelly Zulu, an activist and mother living with HIV in Soweto.
Nelly said access to free treatment has saved her and her 21-year-old son, who tested positive for HIV at four years old.
“It helped me so much because if I didn’t get the treatment, I don’t think I would be alive – even my son.
“My concern is for pregnant women. I don’t want them to go through what I went through – the life I was facing before. I’m scared we will go back to that crisis.”
A woman walks up to the security guards outside a shuttered USAID-funded sexual health clinic in Johannesburg’s inner-city district. She looks around with confusion as they let her know the clinic is closed.
She said it has only been two months since she came here to receive her usual care.Now, she must scramble to find another safe place for her sexual health screenings and Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) – her regular defence against rampant HIV.
