Leading thoughts needed on Aids

Submitted by Muhammad Chohon

I signed 12 death certificates this week in one ward at a public hospital in Johannesburg. All 12 of these unfortunate souls died directly from Aids. On average, at my hospital, 200 to 300 patients die monthly from Aids. The average age of these people is 30. Sixty-five percent are women. Twenty-five percent are foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans.

South Africa as a nation has not grasped the reality that we are in the midst of the most severe of epidemics. Each day in this country, three Boeings crash … 1 000 deaths a day. Yet, the response from both government and civil society has been woeful.

It is time that we honour organisations like the Treatment Action Campaign, which have been magnificent. The Americans have been superb in their contributions to fighting this scourge. Their efforts are meaningless without a coordinating and passionate leadership. There is no question that President Thabo Mbeki’s government has failed. Its failure, in fact, makes Sudan and Bosnia look amateurish.

The doctors and nurses who are always criticised for a lack of empathy are by and large trying their best. Try working in an environment where you are understaffed and undersupplied, yet overwhelmed with demand. All I see is death. Daily. To keep my sanity — and to wake up the next day to try again — demands a lot.

My hope is that people who read this blog may begin to understand that this struggle is far greater than those fought in the past. This enemy is invisible and shows no mercy.

The epidemic will challenge every aspect of our society: we are losing mothers, children, teachers, police officers, doctors and nurses. We are haemorrhaging money in the fight, yet it is only a drop in the ocean when you realise how much we actually need.

Attitudes must change. Too often, I encounter:

I am too old. It won’t affect me.
I don’t sleep around so don’t test me.
Your muti will kill me anyway.
I am white/Indian. We don’t have this problem.

We need leading thoughts on whether this government must introduce compulsory testing; on knocking our heads together to provide solutions; on using our influences to galvanise action; on taking this problem seriously once and for all!

I challenge the bright minds on Thought Leader to move away from the usual Zuma/Zimbabwe insights and start changing people’s lives.

Easier said than done, I’m sure. But you have to aim high!

I, like many others with me, struggle daily. A close colleague of mine recently asked me if the sick actually realise that they are coming to hospital to die. Imagine how helpless they are, and how utterly incapable we feel. Adults in diapers, unable to recognise their own kids. Families headed by 11-year-olds, yet we concern ourselves with Sudan and Zimbabwe as if all is hunky-dory in this country.

I encourage all of you to embark a fact-finding mission. Visit a public hospital during its visiting hours. Familiarise yourselves with the immeasurable pain and suffering of the citizenry. It will change your perspective on life and death in this country.

Muhammad Chohon is a young doctor working in the public service in Johannesburg. He qualified from Wits in 2003 and works with a great team of doctors in the division of internal medicine at the University of Witwaterstrand (Johannesburg General, Helen Joseph, Bara hospitals)