“I have 20 years on these ARVs now and by now I know what is what when it comes to looking after my health”
TAC is marching on 1 December to demand that all stable people living with HIV get a 6 month supply of ARVs from their clinics. This would mean going to your clinic just twice a year for clinical review, rescript, and collecting your next 6 month supply of pills. This is already provided for in South Africa’s 2023 national guidelines. It is based on the World Health Organisation (WHO) 2021 evidence-based recommendation that people doing well on treatment should be getting a 6 month supply of ARVs. But it is not yet being implemented.
In the Western Cape, people living with HIV have been receiving a 4 month supply of ARVs around the festive season for more than ten years to help many people travelling back to the Eastern Cape to be with families. For Siza* this has been a welcome break from the relentless trips to the clinic to collect ARVs over the last 20 years. Some forward thinking clinics in the province were already providing stable people a 6 month supply based on the new guidelines. But now the provincial department wants to reverse years of progress with “festive season” cover and more recently with 6 month supply, and cut people’s supply back down to 3 months. “Festive season” cover should continue and where 6 month supply is being given, this should continue, while the national and provincial department urgently finalises its planning and forecasting processes to ensure that all eligible people get a 6 month supply of ARVs if they want it. Siza explains more about what a 6 month supply would mean to him.
It’s been nearly 20 years that Siza has been on ARVs, and he says after two decades it’s time for the management of HIV to also adapt and change with the times. This especially when it comes to giving people longer supplies of their ARVs.
Siza uses the Ikhwezi Clinic in the Western Cape. He says that he currently still only receives a 2 month supply of his medication, except over the festive season. During these holiday periods the clinic issues a 4 month supply of his ARVs. And he says not having to be at the clinic during this busy time is a welcome break.
“The clinic queue can become very long if you come there after 8am. So, it means every time I go to the clinic I have to wake up very early to try to be at the front of the queue,” he says of how inconvenienced public healthcare users can be.
For Siza, who also only has part-time work, he can’t take time away from work if it clashes with his clinic appointment dates. He says it’s always a challenge to have to go back, and be given a new date just to collect his medication.
“I would be very happy if they could give me a 6 month supply all the time. I have 20 years on these ARVs now and by now I know what is what when it comes to looking after my health,” he says.
Siza, who would have been among the first people initiated on treatment in the public health system in South Africa, says that in the early days he had to do a lot of homework to understand the disease and treatment. He says he relied heavily on HIV counsellors and organisations like TAC working to improve access, rights and dignity for people living with HIV.
He adds: “We have come far; we have even been able to fight stigma – it’s not as bad as before and I have no problems with the medication now. I can also honestly not complain too much about the clinic. All I’m asking for now is that they put people like me, who understand the medication, on to a 6 month supply. It will help us, and it will also help the clinics so that nurses are not so busy.”
* Name changed to protect identity
#MoreARVPillsNow
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