ABSTRACT
January 2004. I am on holiday in a mountainous area of the Eastern Cape. HIV prevalence in the province stands at 28 per cent; treatment is not commonly available, though an NGO ARV programme started two months
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I ask one of the workers with the community-based holiday company, what happens to people in this area who have HIV. He says there are not many HIV positive people here. Those that have the virus, contracted it in the cities. People in his village, he says, abstain from sex before marriage, and this protects them. I ask what happens to people who do have HIV, and he says they are cared for and taken to local clinics and hospitals, where there are, he knows, appropriate medications. The nearest tarred road is a couple of hours’ walk, and the local clinic is 10km away, so this is a time-and moneyconsuming activity. A young man, injured in a fight that night, has to wait all the next day to get a lift to hospital. In the meantime, a sangoma, or healer, makes a herbal dressing for the wound. There may be many reasons for not wanting to talk much about HIV, especially when a tourist is asking. HIV is said not to be here much, and not to belong here. But it is also said to be cared for and treatable.
