HIV positive and bae is not
WRHI offers PREP for mixed HIV status couples who want it at their clinic and at the nine other public health facilities in Johannesburg at which they offer safer conception counselling.
South Africa’s national HIV plan recognises that people in mixed status relationships are at a particularly high risk of contracting the virus — the plan recommends that the country should pilot programmes to expand access to the HIV prevention pill among couples like this.
Today, Siya and Mandisa run a support group for mixed status couples like themselves. Mandisa says very few couples have access to the HIV prevention pill when trying to fall pregnant.
But the national health department offers PREP at 94 facilities nationwide for people at highrisk of HIV infection, says health department spokesperson Popo Maja, and this includes people who may be in mixed-status relationships.
The country has started about 24 000 people on the HIV prevention pill since 2016.
Davies is hopeful that new policies will increase access to the drug. However, she is worried that such policies will not translate into implementation. “Staff haven’t been trained in how to provide PREP and the staff are already so overwhelmed with identifying people who need treatment and managing those people,” Davies explains.
Meanwhile, she says, the science and power behind U=U still haven’t filtered down to many people living with HIV or their partners. “I think one of the challenges for the medical field is just making the language simple enough and accessible enough for people to understand.”
Back at the Dukashes’ home, the last words of Let it Go fade into the background. Imange and Imyoli giggle, impressed with themselves.
Mandisa remembers the exuberance she felt when she held her last-born daughter in her arms for the first time. “The reason we named her Imyoli,” she says, “is because the name means ‘something which is beautiful’. It’s a special kind of achievement. It means everything is well.”
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This story was produced by the Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism www.bhekisisa.org