As South Africa heads towards the COVID-19 storm, the Eastern Cape Department of Health continues to buckle under pressure.
Although the province has seen a decrease in the number of recorded daily infections, many of those living with HIV and TB in the Nelson Mandela Bay say they have been left in limbo to access their medication.
Some say they have been neglected by government since the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
Andiswa Rhode is among more than 7.7 million South Africans living with HIV.
The 30-year-old has been living with the virus for the past 15 years. She says access to daily medication has become a life and death struggle amid the pandemic.
She has now opted to share the little that she has left with those who don’t have any treatment.
“We don’t even have a chance to see the sisters or the doctors, we only speak to the securities or volunteers so we don’t get treatment. We feel like outsiders in our own country because we voted, we’re supposed to get the treatment but we struggle to get the treatment. In order for you to get the treatment, you need to know someone you have connections or you need to have connections so our government is killing us in a way that we using treatment on drug so if we default our immune system will be weak and we’ll be exposed to COVID-19. We are told the government is putting COVID first and has forgotten about us,” says Rhode.
Call for HIV, TB management
As the pressure mounts against the health department, various civil organisations have called for the removal of senior health officials.
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has taken to the Nelson Mandela Bay Health district office. They are demanding that the department strengthens its internal responses to the pandemic.
“Our people are not taking the treatment because of the situation and they are busy trying their level best to get the medication. I stay in Uitenhage but I receive calls all the way from PE that they don’t have treatment and we’ve been asking the senior officials for answers on this so that people can be assisted,” says Eastern Cape TAC Deputy Chairperson, Thembisile Nogampula.
COVID-19 infections out of control
Meanwhile at the Osmond TB Hospital in Uitenhage, unions say COVID-19 infections among patients have spiralled out of control. They say there is no dedicated COVID-19 ward for infected patients at the facility.
“Patients have died here it is very sad what is going on. To think that they are supposed to do management that will make sure that everything is smooth, what we have observed is that even the commitment from the government where they committed to the will be renovations here for a COVID-19 ward but that has not been done here so they must be taken to COVID-19 hospitals,” says Sweetness Stokwe, Nehawu Regional Secretary.
The Health Department says the matter is being addressed. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has also urged people living with other chronic illnesses to utilise health facilities.
“But we do want to encourage people to come back to hospitals for normal ailments and chronic diseases, heart diseases, HIV and TB so that they can continue to get that normal treatment so that they don’t start having problems. From what we have already controlled before so that we can balance everything as the numbers go down,” says Mkhize.
According to the Centre for Strategic & International studies, South Africa remains the epicentre of the HIV and the largest AIDS epidemic in the world. The study says 20% of all people living with HIV are in South Africa.
In the video below, SANAC says it’s important to incorporate HIV and TB in the country’s COVID-19 response:
