Death approaches early in Africa

I wanted to use this blog to update on some of the members. So many of them have been helped by the kind donations from the UK, but there are others that money can no longer help.

Miriam was one of the first members that I met when I came to Kenya and she was very sick at the time. That was sorted out but now she is "down" or sick once more. I think that her TB has returned and there is something else wrong but I can't tell what. She had to go back to the hospital the other day- I had to give her the money for bus fares as our bloody chairman has spent all the money, damn him!- but the hospital are not saying what is wrong with her. That usually means that there is little that they can do for somebody. She looks dreadful and is very weak, hardly able to walk. I'm not sure what is going to happen to her. She is 24 and a prostitute, a fate that befalls many African women as they have no other way of making money.

Lydia is our other member who is dreadfully ill. She was in hospital about 3 weeks ago with TB and was eventually released home. Now she is suffering from meningitis. She is taking medication but she is not able to eat anything for about 2 weeks now, meaning that her ARV's will not work and she will fall prey to all other infections that are around. We visited her on Friday and she was barely conscious that anyone was there. I think she will almost certainly die. I suggested that we have her admitted back to hospital to have IV food, but the hospitals here are not like Western hospitals. If they think that she may die and not be able to pay her bill, they will just leave her to die on the floor of the corridor, unless someone is kind enough to pick her up. She will also pick up more disease outside the hospital than in it, so it is safer to leave her at home. Her mother takes care of her and is very worried about her. Lydia is 26.

I also wanted to comment on the attitudes of African men towards HIV. Most of them carry a very great stigma and will not let anyone know if they are positive. So many of them even refuse to be tested, and will not take drugs if they find out that they are positive. If a man finds out he is positive he will always blame his wife, although African men have up to 20 girlfriends when they are married and usually don't use condoms. We visited a non member the other day who wanted advice. Her husband is very sick, constantly vomiting and having diarhorrea, but refuses to go to the hospital. He also beats her every day when she takes her ARV's as he has instructed her not to take them and she refuses. He insists that the drugs will kill her! This is a common view among Africans especially men. They also believe that they are not suffering from HIV, they are suffering from witchcraft, someone has put a bad spell on them, AIDS is propaganda from the government and all sorts of nonsense. And this is as likely to come from educated men as from uneducated men!! No surprise then, that death comes early in Africa.