THE RISE OF A DRUG DEALER
How Dr Mompati broke laws to fight HIV/AIDS
AT the height of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) outbreak in the mid 90’s, Dr Kgosi Mompati was already supplying patients with life-saving Antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, smuggled into the country illegally from South Africa.
At the time, Botswana and her southern neighbour were still years away from settingup a national ARV therapy programme. Thousands died as a result. A decade earlier (1985) and Mompati was taking his first tentative steps into the world of medicine on the other side of the world.
Studying in the United Kingdom, the Serowe native was aware that only a single case of HIV had been reported back home.
“That was at the Orapa Mine Hospital. HIV/AIDS was not yet a problem in Botswana so I wasn’t really too concerned,” the bespectacled doctor tells The Voice in an exclusive trip down memory lane this week.
His perspective would change drastically just a year later.
“It wasn’t until 1986 as I was listening to a BBC News channel where it was stated that unless something was done in Africa, 75 million people were going to die of AIDS,” recalls Dr Mompati.
The terrifying numbers being churned out by media houses in the UK troubled him. From that point on, he made it his mission to fight the scourge the moment he returned home.
Shortly after landing back in Bots, Mompati joined government employment, serving stints at Jubillee Clinic, Nyangagbwe and then Princess Marina.
In 1991, he quit his job to join his wife, Dorcas Onneile, who already had a private clinic in Francistown.
It was during his private practice that Dr Mompati, a qualified Physician, came face to face with the monster that is HIV.
“In 1988, during the commemorations of the HIV Day, I reported 59 cases which grew to 127 the following year. In 1990, I reported 434 cases and then HIV/ AIDS spread like a veld fire,” he remembers, reeling off the numbers from memory.
Indeed, the mental scars from that time will remain with him forever.
“It was sad to see people coming for medical attention and watching them die. I don’t think my wife and I will ever recover from that trauma.”
Well aware drugs were available to treat Hiv-positive patients, and that such medication was unlicenced, Mompati had to choose between ethics and empathy.
To make his position even more sensitive, he was also Chairperson of the Botswana Drugs Regulatory Unit (BDRU), which licenced all the drugs in the country.
Would the doctor break his own rules?
“Antiretrovirals was a private sector initiative, so it was in 1996 that I decided to smuggle these drugs into Botswana to treat my patients,” reveals Mompati, letting loose a sheepish schoolboy giggle.
Rumours of a doctor with an HIV ‘cure’ quickly caught on.
Mompati became a household name at the chagrin of government health officials.
The drugs did not come cheap, and soon he would pay dearly for his transgressions.
“Drugs were going for P3,000 per person, and I had treated 30 patients which meant I was liable to collect P90,000 from medical aid providers. It was money I never received as the medical aid rightfully pointed out that I was using unlicensed drugs.”
The doctor was summoned to a disciplinary hearing and dully received his punishment.
“I have to state that the BDRU was very lenient because although I was disobedient I was saving lives. Ironically, most of those I treated with these illegal drugs are still alive today,” he declares, his aging features lighting up with a beaming smile.
In 2002, six years after Mompati began treating patients with ARVS, the Botswana government made history by becoming the first country to offer free antiretrovirals. The implementation of antiretroviral therapy started and expanded to 23 sites in 2004.
(Read the incredible in-depth success story of Dr Mompati and his wife in next week’s issue)
It wasn’t until 1986 as I was listening to a BBC News channel where it was stated that unless something was done in Africa, 75 million people were going to die of AIDS!