![[South Africa] Some of the staff and volunteers running the Blue Roofs Clinic. [Date picture taken: 10/17/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200610233.jpg.webp?itok=AoyivkW_ "Some of the staff and volunteers running the Blue Roofs Clinic")
The 'Blue Roofs Clinic' in Wentworth, on the outskirts of South Africa's east-coast city of Durban, is difficult to miss with its giant steel top echoing the colour of its name.
Situated on the former premises of a popular night club, the anti-AIDS initiative seeks to address the needs of HIV-positive people who are slipping through the cracks at public healthcare facilities.
Marion Jacobs, 21 and displaying a number of AIDS-related illnesses, comes to the facility every day so nursing staff can monitor her adherence to recently started tuberculosis (TB) medication.
"If it wasn't for this centre, I wouldn't have known what to do," she told IRIN PlusNews. "I am too weak and don't have money to travel to clinics outside of the community. This place is within a short walking distance from my house."
An ambulance is available for transporting incapacitated patients between their homes and the centre, and with support from international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), such as Keep a Child Alive (KCA), and the US-based Stephen Lewis and Clinton Foundations, the clinic will soon start providing diagnosis and monitoring, referrals for specialised care, and much-needed antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
Marion is one of 120 people who have been put on the clinic's ARV waiting list since its official launch in April this year.
However, officials expressed concern that some of the people on the list might not survive the wait. "We are vigorously engaged in ARV procurement negotiations, but fear that most patients won't make it to the point of treatment delivery," said Geraldine Hendricks, South African programme director for KCA.
Most of the patients on the waiting list have dramatically low CD4 levels (which measure the body's immunity), often brought about when people have delayed HIV testing for fear of discrimination. ARVs can boost the immune system, raising the CD4 count.
Already showing tell-tale signs of Kaposi's sarcoma - a cancer of the blood vessels common in people with low CD4 levels - Marion said of her own AIDS denial, "It seemed like my only option in a place like Wentworth, where unemployed people spend their time gossiping about who they think might have AIDS. I even heard of people being beaten, and I also had to think of my 3-year-old son and my fiancé."
Having lost her appetite and a considerable amount of weight, and struggling with a persistent TB-related cough, Marion held down a job until she was too ill.
"I didn't want to believe I have AIDS. You notice the change in the mirror every day but just hope that no one else would too - people can be nasty when they make up their minds about your status. I am very sick right now, but I am confident I will get better with the support I am getting here [at the clinic]," she added.
HITTING AT THE ROOT OF THE PANDEMIC
According to the KCA, finding work is difficult for the 58 percent of the community who are jobless, despite the area being surrounded by large factories and the sprawling Engen oil refinery.
Cramped living conditions, high rates of unemployment and poverty-driven desperation have also led to rampant alcohol and drug dependency, fuelling risky sexual behaviour.
"In order to not only treat people who are HIV-positive, but also prevent new infections, we have enlisted the services of a resident social worker, who works closely with patients struggling to overcome their addictions with alcohol and other narcotics," Hendricks told PlusNews.
The clinic will also be working with community self-help groups to provide microfinancing to women dependent on abusive male partners.
"Facilitated by the social worker, women will meet weekly to address their vulnerabilities and discuss topics that include, but are not limited to, domestic violence, small-business creation, prevention for serodiscordant couples [where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not] and how to care for infected family and friends," said Hendricks.
HELPING FREE UP THE ARV BOTTLENECK
Wentworth Hospital, about two kilometres from the new clinic, is the first choice of many HIV-positive residents unable to afford the cost of travelling to a treatment centre outside the community for ARVs, but people are often placed on waiting lists for up to nine months and usually die before accessing the life-prolonging medication.
Citing national treatment numbers, Hendricks acknowledged there was a bottleneck in the government's ARV rollout programme.
According to the latest figures from the Department of Health, close to 180,000 people were receiving ARVs countrywide between April and June this year, while more than 31,000 people had been placed on waiting lists for the drugs in that same period.
"The Blue Roofs Clinic will be rolling out ARVs as [early] as the first week in November," Hendricks said. "We are set to start with 50 patients on our list, but expect this number to quickly grow as those on lists at government sites, more specifically for Wentworth Hospital, start to transfer. We are confident that our rollout will, to a large extent, help decongest the wards at some of the treatment sites."
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Situated on the former premises of a popular night club, the anti-AIDS initiative seeks to address the needs of HIV-positive people who are slipping through the cracks at public healthcare facilities.
Marion Jacobs, 21 and displaying a number of AIDS-related illnesses, comes to the facility every day so nursing staff can monitor her adherence to recently started tuberculosis (TB) medication.
"If it wasn't for this centre, I wouldn't have known what to do," she told IRIN PlusNews. "I am too weak and don't have money to travel to clinics outside of the community. This place is within a short walking distance from my house."
An ambulance is available for transporting incapacitated patients between their homes and the centre, and with support from international nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), such as Keep a Child Alive (KCA), and the US-based Stephen Lewis and Clinton Foundations, the clinic will soon start providing diagnosis and monitoring, referrals for specialised care, and much-needed antiretroviral (ARV) drugs.
Marion is one of 120 people who have been put on the clinic's ARV waiting list since its official launch in April this year.
However, officials expressed concern that some of the people on the list might not survive the wait. "We are vigorously engaged in ARV procurement negotiations, but fear that most patients won't make it to the point of treatment delivery," said Geraldine Hendricks, South African programme director for KCA.
Most of the patients on the waiting list have dramatically low CD4 levels (which measure the body's immunity), often brought about when people have delayed HIV testing for fear of discrimination. ARVs can boost the immune system, raising the CD4 count.
Already showing tell-tale signs of Kaposi's sarcoma - a cancer of the blood vessels common in people with low CD4 levels - Marion said of her own AIDS denial, "It seemed like my only option in a place like Wentworth, where unemployed people spend their time gossiping about who they think might have AIDS. I even heard of people being beaten, and I also had to think of my 3-year-old son and my fiancé."
Having lost her appetite and a considerable amount of weight, and struggling with a persistent TB-related cough, Marion held down a job until she was too ill.
"I didn't want to believe I have AIDS. You notice the change in the mirror every day but just hope that no one else would too - people can be nasty when they make up their minds about your status. I am very sick right now, but I am confident I will get better with the support I am getting here [at the clinic]," she added.
HITTING AT THE ROOT OF THE PANDEMIC
According to the KCA, finding work is difficult for the 58 percent of the community who are jobless, despite the area being surrounded by large factories and the sprawling Engen oil refinery.
Cramped living conditions, high rates of unemployment and poverty-driven desperation have also led to rampant alcohol and drug dependency, fuelling risky sexual behaviour.
"In order to not only treat people who are HIV-positive, but also prevent new infections, we have enlisted the services of a resident social worker, who works closely with patients struggling to overcome their addictions with alcohol and other narcotics," Hendricks told PlusNews.
The clinic will also be working with community self-help groups to provide microfinancing to women dependent on abusive male partners.
"Facilitated by the social worker, women will meet weekly to address their vulnerabilities and discuss topics that include, but are not limited to, domestic violence, small-business creation, prevention for serodiscordant couples [where one partner is HIV-positive and the other is not] and how to care for infected family and friends," said Hendricks.
HELPING FREE UP THE ARV BOTTLENECK
Wentworth Hospital, about two kilometres from the new clinic, is the first choice of many HIV-positive residents unable to afford the cost of travelling to a treatment centre outside the community for ARVs, but people are often placed on waiting lists for up to nine months and usually die before accessing the life-prolonging medication.
Citing national treatment numbers, Hendricks acknowledged there was a bottleneck in the government's ARV rollout programme.
According to the latest figures from the Department of Health, close to 180,000 people were receiving ARVs countrywide between April and June this year, while more than 31,000 people had been placed on waiting lists for the drugs in that same period.
"The Blue Roofs Clinic will be rolling out ARVs as [early] as the first week in November," Hendricks said. "We are set to start with 50 patients on our list, but expect this number to quickly grow as those on lists at government sites, more specifically for Wentworth Hospital, start to transfer. We are confident that our rollout will, to a large extent, help decongest the wards at some of the treatment sites."
hh/he/kn
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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