‘Don’t share ARVs’ warning

KHULANI and Gift Khuzwayo are cousins from Embo in KwaZulu-Natal on the South Coast. Both have been HIV positive since 2016.

Despite living in the same house, they collect their ARV medication at different clinics. There are times when Khulani runs out of pills, so he asks Gift to give him one, with a promise to return it from his batch.

“He also asks for mine when he runs out,” said Khulani. “I see this as helping each other instead of defaulting (on taking medication). We make sure we take our ARVs every day.

“Even though we’ve been told in clinics that we shouldn’t share our ARVs because it is dangerous and that our CD4 count, blood results and weight are not the same, I don’t see the reason why not because Khulani and I take the same pill, which is in the same shape and size, most of the time. We take it at the same time at 8pm. We don’t want the virus to make copies of itself in our bodies.”

However, public health nurse and HIV specialist Siboniso Nene says the cousins should not be sharing ARVs. He said ARVs are issued on an individual basis and it is calculated when it will be completed. Sharing can lead to early depletion of ARV stock issued to a patient, putting their life at risk, increased drug resistance and ultimately failing the medication regimen.

Nene said: “I believe these two young men and others lack important knowledge about how they should take their ARVs, or they ignore what they’ve been told in clinics. More education needs to be done frequently in the health facilities, the media and social media.” | Health-e News