{"id":22730,"date":"2022-12-14T09:48:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T09:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids"},"modified":"2022-12-14T10:55:21","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T10:55:21","slug":"big-steps-against-aids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids","title":{"rendered":"Big steps against AIDS"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>PAULINA Khabejana, 52, is grateful to the government and development partners for availing antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people. Khabejane, from Qacha\u2019s Nek, witnessed how her husband, who was a migrant mine worker in South Africa, died from an AIDS-related illness in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n<p>She says she will never forget how she nearly died when she fell sick immediately almost at the same time as her husband. She says she began to lose a lot of weight and was only saved by doctors at a hospital in Qacha\u2019s Nek who prescribed for her antiretroviral drugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe doctors did not ask for my permission,\u201d Khabejane says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey just prescribed antiretroviral drugs and told me that if I would not take them I would die,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI took the drugs and I\u2019m still alive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201d<br \/>\nKhabejane was speaking to thepost at an event to commemorate World AIDS Day in the district last week.<\/p>\n<p>She says the picture of her husband\u2019s frail body before he died, and how she too lost weight severely when she fell sick, motivated her to take up her antiretroviral drugs.<\/p>\n<p>Khabajane is one of the 230 000 Basotho who are on antiretroviral treatment in Lesotho. This is the fifth year since Khabejane began her antiretroviral treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband died over 15 years ago. She says it is a pity that her husband died at a time when being HIV positive was seen as a death sentence. There was also a lot of stigmatisation for people who would have tested HIV positive, she says.<\/p>\n<p>And when her husband died, antiretroviral treatment was not yet available to everybody who needed it. \u201cIt was so embarrassing to tell people that someone was HIV positive because at the time, we believed a person with HIV was of loose morals and was sleeping all over with everyone,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>Her husband was working in South Africa in the mines and would come home for the weekend. \u201cI remember quite well that I got ill some weeks after he left for South Africa but I did not tell him and I quickly recovered,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLater that same year he told me that he was sick and he might come back home on sick leave.<\/p>\n<p>A month later he arrived, so weak that he was unable to pick up a plastic bag, so weak and so thin that he was not able to finish a glass of water. \u201d<br \/>\nKhabejane says her husband was taken from one hospital to the next but never recovered.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne day the doctors told me he had to test for HIV and when I came back to check on him I was told that he was HIV positive,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt sick in the stomach because I knew how HIV was passed from one person to another.<br \/>\nHe kept on losing weight until he was gone, she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was left with this disease, had many questions with no answers. I tried to be strong for my children.<br \/>\nShe says she was living in misery, she got sick, and had severe stress after she lost her love and someone who brought bread for her children.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had to accept that he left me with this incurable disease.<br \/>\nBut years passed and later she too got seriously sick. Luckily for her, she fell sick at a time when the antiretroviral drugs were available to everyone, which saved her life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m happy I am still alive, I never thought I would see these years,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to live, I wanted to be there for my children, I am happy and thankful that the treatment helped us to go on with our lives although it was not easy.<br \/>\nThe latest statistics reveal that at least 280 000 people in Lesotho are living with HIV. The HIV prevalence rates for the adult population currently stands at 21.1 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The battle against HIV is however far from over with 7 700 new HIV infections recorded every year. The disease is mowing down 4 700 people every year with 230 000 people on antiretroviral treatment.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during the World AIDS Day commemorations on December 1, King Letsie III: \u201cToday we stand tall for the systems to be strengthened, many lives spared, and some new infections averted.<br \/>\nThe king said that the dream of an AIDS-free Lesotho is closer to reality. He said Lesotho has demonstrated resilience, perseverance, and commitment to end AIDS as a public health threat.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Sam Matekane, speaking at the same occasion in Maseru, said Lesotho remains committed to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLeave no one behind and rally together with everyone towards an AIDS-free Lesotho,\u201d Matekane said.<\/p>\n<p>Lesotho reached the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target by 2020, with 90 percent of the population aware of their HIV status, 97 percent of those aware of their HIV status on treatment, and 92 percent of those on treatment virally suppressed.<\/p>\n<p>Lesotho is among the first countries to adopt decentralisation of care from hospitals to nurse-led health centres to scale up the provision of antiretroviral therapy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\">Lesotho<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. PAULINA Khabejana, 52, is grateful to the government and development partners for availing antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people. Khabejane, from Qacha\u2019s Nek, witnessed how her husband, who was a migrant mine worker in South Africa, died from an AIDS-related illness in the early 2000s. She says she will never forget how she [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":22729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,7],"tags":[233,246,324,245],"class_list":["post-22730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","category-head-lines","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-hiv","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Big steps against AIDS - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PAULINA Khabejana, 52, is grateful to the government and development partners for availing antiretroviral drugs to HIV-p ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big steps against AIDS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"PAULINA Khabejana, 52, is grateful to the government and development partners for availing antiretroviral drugs to HIV-p ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T09:48:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-14T10:55:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670998879.15.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Big steps against AIDS\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-14T09:48:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-14T10:55:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\"},\"wordCount\":851,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/12\/postQueueImg_1670998879.15.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"HIV\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\",\"head lines\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/big-steps-against-aids\",\"name\":\"Big steps against AIDS - 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