UFAFA, South Africa, Nov 26 (AFP) - In South Africa's picturesque but AIDS-ravaged Zulu heartland the pandemic is rarely discussed and victims suffer in silence due to a mixture of ignorance, denial and fear.
Nokuthula, 54, who has been living with the disease for several years, summed up her predicament succinctly.
"It's my secret. If I tell the other people, they will be frightened and they will think I am going to die," she says holding a piece of paper containing the result of her test.
"My husband has got the same little paper but we do not talk about it," she said, adding: "I have been sick for many years."
South Africa is one of the countries the worst affected by the AIDS pandemic with six million people infected with the virus while only 80,000 HIV positive patients are receiving retroviral drugs (ARVs), the most effective proven treatment of the virus, under a government programme launched in 2003.
The UN's annual report on the global AIDS crisis released last week said that at least 85 percent of South Africans in need of ARVs, were not yet receiving them by mid-2005.
For people living in and around Ufafa, a picture postcard area of KwaZulu-Natal province replete with green rolling hills, any talk of AIDS is clearly taboo even within the four walls of their homes.
"It's my secret, I can't tell anyone, I can't even tell my mother, she drinks too much, she would tell everybody," said Monica, a 30-year-old using a false name.
Delisile, 33, said the stigma associated with AIDS was unbearable and invariably put down to sexual promiscuity.
"People think it came through some sort of misbehaviour. They do not want to understand," she said.
"The biggest worry is that, sometimes, if you disclose to people, they would not touch you because they are afraid. Sometimes, people won't even eat with the same spoon that you have been using."
"My only wish is to get a place where I can be peaceful," she added.
In Ufafa, where people have neither electricity nor running water, the HIV/AIDS rate is alarmingly high. The nearest hospital is in Ixopo, about 15 kilometres away.
Endemic poverty is another deterrent and doctors are a luxury for the vast majority.
There is also a long waiting line for access to free ARVs.
Sue Hedden from the non-governmental organisation Woza Moya (Zulu for "Let the Spirit Come"), confirmed this, saying: "People die on that waiting list all the time."
"It's not a lack of ARVs, it's a lack of trained personnel," like doctors, nurses and counsellors, she said, adding: "Denial is still very very strong."
"There is not one family in the area that has not been directly affected."
Thokodzani Ngcobo, a 50-year-old former schoolteacher who works for Woza Moya, said: "This secret makes our world very difficult. It's very frustrating in the workplace."
The taboo is so strong that even some of those working for Woza Moya, which provides home-based care and tries to fight againt the stigma, prefer to sweep it under the carpet.
At the end of September, a volunteer who had been exhorting people on a daily basis to talk openly about AIDS, died at the age of 36 -- two weeks after giving birth. After her death, a friend of hers disclosed that she had died of AIDS.
051126
AF051123
Copyright ©AFP 2005. All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission. obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP photos or materials. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP stories, photos or graphics. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2005. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2005 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
