The Sunday Mail
Sharon Kavhu recently in Macheke
Back in 1998, Mrs Grace Chabuka-Maposhere (43) gave birth to a baby boy when she was unaware of her HIV status.
The only time she had gone with her husband for HIV testing was when she was five months pregnant but the couple did not collect their results for the next four years.
“
I delivered my first child in December 1998 after attempting abortion several times but to no avail. When I was still four months pregnant, I really wanted to get rid of my unborn child because I was still in university and I didn’t want the responsibilities that come with a child. I got tested for HIV at five months but did not collect my results,” said the mother of one.
She was sharing her journey in appreciation of the advances that have been made in prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT).
She narrated how she saw her son dying of HIV-related ailments when he was five years old at the time during an era when people living with HIV could not receive much help from local clinics or hospitals.
“We decided to go and collect my HIV tests results four years later after the test. He was also tested and we discovered that we were both HIV-positive. What forced us to go and collect my HIV results was that our son was getting in and out of hospital regularly. Our son also tested HIV-positive but it was too late for him to be initiated on the anti-retroviral treatment that had just been introduced in Zimbabwe.
“When I told my mother about our status, she was more than willing to assist me and ensure that I finished my university studies. She had just retired as a nurse and she assisted me in every way possible. Unfortunately my son died on September 1, 2003 when he was just five years old.”
Five years after the loss of their child, her husband also passed away after suffering from HIV-related illnesses.
She started a long and painful journey of depression, sleepless nights, rage and paranoia.
“I waited for my own death. Extreme sorrow was the order of my days. I lost interest in daily activities and became a solitary person, and even so I still did not tell anyone of my HIV status. This was just eating me up,” she narrated.
She went for years without treatment and she fell seriously ill for two years. She was finally initiated on ART in 2007.
When she got a job, she met someone and they fell in love, culminating in him proposing marriage to her.
The two got married despite their different HIV statuses.
“I disclosed my status to him and we went for HIV testing and counselling together. He tested HIV negative, after three months he was tested again and his results remained negative. We got married and enjoyed our big church wedding and I was a blissful bride in 2010!”
Even though Mrs Chabuka-Maposhere still has the scars from the painful loss of her son earlier on, she decided to have another child in her new marriage.
She was initiated on the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals when she was three months pregnant.
“Since I was already on ART, my viral load was so supressed such that the virus was no longer detectable. When I was initiated on PMTCT, I was told to leave the Stanalev combination which I was taking and started taking Nevirapine to prevent my child from acquiring the virus,” she explained.
“Eventually, I delivered a bouncing baby girl through C-section. The doctors advised me to administer 2,5 millimetres of nevirapine every day for six weeks and exclusively breastfeed her. I exclusively breastfed her for two years!”
Her daughter is HIV-negative and she is four years old today.
Soon after the delivery, Mrs Chabuka-Maposhereshe was advised to go back to her Stanalev combination.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, PMTCT was initiated in Zimbabwe as a pilot programme in 2000 and the following year it was rolled out countrywide.
Initially, pregnant women were given Nevirapine in the later stages of pregnancy while they got a dosage of the drug as they went into labour.
Zimbabwe is currently using the Option B+ which was officially launched in 2013.
