An HIV-negative start in life thanks to Botswana’s pathbreaking programme
Gaborone – Seventeen-year-old Keneilwe dreams of someday becoming a pharmacist.
“There was a shortage of pharmacists at my clinic, and always long lines,” she recalls of previous visits. “I thought I could help them.”
Keneilwe grew up watching her mother, Cecilia, take daily medication prescribed by the clinic. “I thought it was for blood pressure,” she says.
But when Keneilwe turned 16, her mother revealed a startling secret: while pregnant with Keneilwe, Cecilia had been diagnosed with HIV and placed on antiretroviral treatment, as part of Botswana’s comprehensive programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT).
Keneilwe was dumbfounded at the news. “I didn’t talk to her for two weeks,” she admits.
The programme has made an HIV-negative start in life possible for Keneilwe and countless others. But learning her mother’s secret has also made her more compassionate toward people living with HIV – including one of her own classmates. “There was a girl in my class taking those pills,” she says. “People were saying bad things to her. I was one of them.” After learning her mother’s status, Keneilwe went back to her classmate and apologized. The two have now become close. “She considers me her best friend,” Keneilwe says, noting that she encourages her friend to get ample exercise. Though not yet the pharmacist she aspires to be, Keneilwe also wishes to encourage pregnant women to take full advantage of all that Botswana’s programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV has to offer, starting with checking their HIV status. If they find out they’re HIV-positive, they should take the provided medication to protect their child – as her own mother, 17 years ago, did for her. “Right now, I’m here and happy,” she says, smiling. “I’m so, so grateful to my mum, my role model, for taking her pills when she was pregnant with me. For protecting me.”
Since then, Keneilwe says, she has had a complete change of attitude. “My mum is my everything,” she says, describing how she now helps with chores more than she used to. “I make sure she eats healthy food and is always happy.” Recently, Botswana became the first country with a severe HIV epidemic to bring mother-to-child HIV transmission rates under 5%. The country’s programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV ensures that more than 90% of pregnant women are covered for antenatal visits, routinely tested for HIV and, if positive, provided with antiretroviral treatment. Women living with HIV who do not receive treatment have a 15 to 45% chance of transmitting the virus to their children during pregnancy, delivery or breastfeeding. However, the risk drops to less than 5% if both mothers and children receive treatment throughout the stages when transmission can occur.
