Sibonelo Mduli

Swaziland

Many people fear taking ARVs, because they think it will make them worse. They don’t know about the side effects, but because they know people who have died after taking ARVs, they think it was the drugs that killed them. Some people die just because they were not treated in time or they were treated too late. We’ve also been taught you cannot take the traditional medicines along with ARVs. So people stop their ARVs.

There have been rumours that the drugs are rejects from the US or are cheap brands. We are a traditional country and have traditional medicine, so we have people stopping ARVs to take African potato or other traditional medicines. We also have paternalistic doctors, who say you have to take these pills at a certain time, and if you ask too many questions you might get in trouble. And people in rural areas – especially women – don’t have money to travel to the clinic even if the treatment is available.