LESOTHO: HIV and AIDS continues to ravage rural areas of Lesotho because people have no access to health facilities and life prolonging drugs

Record ID: 402373

  • Title: LESOTHO: HIV and AIDS continues to ravage rural areas of Lesotho because people have no access to health facilities and life prolonging drugs
  • Date: 9th November 2011
  • Summary: WOMAN HOLDING HER CHILD CHILD'S FACE NURSE SPEAKING TO A WOMAN AT CLINIC
  • Embargoed: 24th November 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Lesotho, Lesotho
  • Country: Lesotho
  • Topics: Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA250498ACHJFOWBNNPGRRTN97G
  • Story Text: Nestled between Lesotho's striking mountainous terrain, the beauty of Mokhotlong district belies the struggle of it's inhabitants -- battling drought, unemployment and a scourge of HIV/AIDS that is made worse by the remoteness of this rural area.
    One of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, Lesotho has one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDS infections.
    The United Nations has estimated that about 270,000 people live with HIV/AIDS in Lesotho, nearly a quarter of the adult population.
    Drought and hunger, partly caused by farmers dying from AIDS has led the government to declare humanitarian emergencies in the past.
    But the mountainous kingdom has made some significant progress in lowering the numbers of new infections by introducing the Prevention Mother To Child Transmission (PMTCT) campaign where pregnant HIV positive women can receive antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother to child transmission of the disease.
    These gains are however at risk as patients living in the more rural areas of Lesotho cannot receive the right medication in time.
    Many are too far from medical facilities and can only travel on foot, by donkey or horseback.
    Nurse Ntsiuoa Mahare at a clinic in Mokhotlong says isolation of communities and lack of transport has been a big challenge.
    "Here our problem is we don't have transport and we don't have a vehicle, when the patient has a problem here, we have a problem taking the patient to the hospital and we used to call for assistance from the hospital, and always they used to tell us that they don't have a vehicle to help us," she said.
    In small clinics there is also a shortage of the life prolonging antiretroviral drugs that patients travel so far to access.
    Without these drugs patients are susceptible to a wide range of infections including TB, which if left untreated, can be deadly.
    Local community volunteers have started to work with health officials to encourage people to seek treatment before its too late.
    "I work with the people of Tsekelo village and encourage them to go to the clinic, if they are very sick I take them myself to the clinic, I also help those with Tuberculosis to take their medication as prescribed by the doctors," said Manolichi Tsoenyane.
    The United Nations World Food Program is also working in Lesotho to improve nutrition and provide food so that the regular use of ARVs can be effective.
    "We as World Food Program provide nutritional support for the patients, we all know that the ARV medications requires quite an extensive nutrition backup," said WFP programme assistant Chabeli Monyake.
    East and Southern Africa are the areas most heavily affected by the global HIV epidemic. Out of the total number of people worldwide in 2009 living with HIV, 34 percent were in 10 countries of Southern Africa -- including Lesotho, according to the U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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