This week Siyayinqoba Beat It! looks at the relationship between HIV and TB. TB is spread through the droplets that you spit out when you cough or sneeze and almost anyone can get it. However, you are most vulnerable if your immune system is weak which puts people who are HIV positive at a high risk. To better understand this relationship and find out how TB can be treated we first visit a mother who supported her young HIV positive daughter while she was being treated for TB. Our second insert looks at how a young man who is living with both HIV and TB manages his treatment regimen.
Nozuko Nogqala is herself living with HIV. She lives in Ngqeleni in the Eastern Cape with her daughter, seven year old Zintle. In 2004, after hearing about HIV on television and radio, Nozuko tested and learned that she was positive. A year later she took Zintle to be tested and discovered that she had contracted both HIV and TB. Zintle was treated for TB and recovered, until two years later when she contracted the disease again. Nozuko noticed that her daughter was losing weight, not eating and coughing constantly which, as Siyayinqoba’s Dr Trevor Majoro explains, are all clear symptoms of TB: “Coughing for more than two weeks, rapid weight loss, night sweats. Children will be weak and have a lack of strength.”
Treatment for TB is the same for both children and adults, but the drugs are strong, they don’t taste nice and can also have side effects. Zintle was given treatment for six months based on her weight. She first had to take treatment from sachets which her mother mixed with water four times a day. Then she started taking pills – these were too big for a young girl, so her mother would crush or dilute them. The treatment was not easy but with her mother’s support Zintle completed her regimen and recovered. She is able to attend school like any other child and much of her recovery can be attributed to the love and support she receives from her mother, siblings and teachers.
Khulekani Mkhize, who lives in Nkandla in KZN, also benefited from the support he has from others. Khulekani is living with HIV and TB. He first became concerned when he began to feel increasingly tired – even walking a short distance to the shop would leave him weak and dizzy. A blood test revealed he had both HIV and TB so he began treatment – first for TB and a month later he started ARVs in order to allow his body to become accustomed to the two regimens. In his home Khulekani shows us his ARV pills which he takes at 8am and 8pm and his TB pills, which he takes at 11am. In this way his body doesn’t have to absorb too many pills at once and he is not left too tired to go about his day.
Khulekani and Zintle owe much to the care of those around them who encouraged them to stick to their treatment even when it was most difficult. Khulenkani’s mother and sister often counsel and encourage him. Khulekani himself advises other people like himself to “go to the clinic regularly, attend classes and obtain information.” TB and HIV can both be fatal – but TB is curable and HIV is manageable. If you take your treatment properly you can beat TB and suppress HIV – enabling you to live a normal life.