The personal cost of treatment: Rose’s story
Rose lives in Amuka- Kitale in Trans- Nzoia district (Kenya), with 27 members of her extended family. In 1997, after many months of illness, her husband died of AIDS.
Rose nursed her husband while he was sick, but she did not realize that he had AIDS because he denied it. When her young son Joseph got sick with tuberculosis, Rose and her son were tested for HIV and discovered they were both infected. In 2002, Rose became very sick, and her family persuaded the doctors to put her on antiretroviral treatment (ARV); they had already lost four family members to AIDS.
But paying for the ARV drugs is a struggle. Rose gets some financial through a ‘well wishes lady’ who heard of Rose through a local NGO- she sends donations whenever she can. But Rose lives everyday with chronic uncertainty about whether she can afford to by her treatment- the bills just keep coming.
One of her recent pharmaceutical receipt’s is for 15,200 Kenya shillings (US$190). In addition to the drugs, she has to pay 200 shillings (US$2.5) for each consultation, and 400 shillings (US$5) for a CD4 count test. Traveling to and from the clinic costs her 120 shillings (US$1.50). Joseph (her son) is not yet on ARV treatment, but requires treatment for opportunistic infections from time to time, and this too costs money.
The large family currently survives on the wages of Rose’s brother, who is a watchman, and her sister, who is a housemaid. Two other married sisters living elsewhere also contribute.
Access to ARV treatment means nothing if people can’t pay for the drugs. Helping people pay for these life-saving medications is imperative, and this is precisely the role institutions such as the World Health Organization and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have committed themselves to. Let’s hope they step up their efforts to help people like Rose pay for their treatment and stay alive…before it is too late.
Submitted by ACW campaign partner:
Johnstone Sikulu Wanjala
Programme coordinator
Sima community based organization
Po box 1691,
Kitale30200,
Kenya
+254-733 453 339.
Rose nursed her husband while he was sick, but she did not realize that he had AIDS because he denied it. When her young son Joseph got sick with tuberculosis, Rose and her son were tested for HIV and discovered they were both infected. In 2002, Rose became very sick, and her family persuaded the doctors to put her on antiretroviral treatment (ARV); they had already lost four family members to AIDS.
But paying for the ARV drugs is a struggle. Rose gets some financial through a ‘well wishes lady’ who heard of Rose through a local NGO- she sends donations whenever she can. But Rose lives everyday with chronic uncertainty about whether she can afford to by her treatment- the bills just keep coming.
One of her recent pharmaceutical receipt’s is for 15,200 Kenya shillings (US$190). In addition to the drugs, she has to pay 200 shillings (US$2.5) for each consultation, and 400 shillings (US$5) for a CD4 count test. Traveling to and from the clinic costs her 120 shillings (US$1.50). Joseph (her son) is not yet on ARV treatment, but requires treatment for opportunistic infections from time to time, and this too costs money.
The large family currently survives on the wages of Rose’s brother, who is a watchman, and her sister, who is a housemaid. Two other married sisters living elsewhere also contribute.
Access to ARV treatment means nothing if people can’t pay for the drugs. Helping people pay for these life-saving medications is imperative, and this is precisely the role institutions such as the World Health Organization and the Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have committed themselves to. Let’s hope they step up their efforts to help people like Rose pay for their treatment and stay alive…before it is too late.
Submitted by ACW campaign partner:
Johnstone Sikulu Wanjala
Programme coordinator
Sima community based organization
Po box 1691,
Kitale30200,
Kenya
+254-733 453 339.
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 4:33 pm
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