HIV and TB

"South Africa has the highest number of HIV positive people infected with tuberculosis, representing one third of people globally who are co-infected with the diseases," read the April 1 edition of The Mercury, Durban's largest newspaper.

While half of all South Africans are exposed to TB at some point in their lives, the vast majority are able to suppress the disease with a strong immune system. Once infected with HIV, however, the immune system is weakened and the disease is unleashed. Less than half of the TB patients in Durban are able to recover. This is due in part to the fact that many people do not adhere to the strict 6 month long TB treatment program. Drug supplies are sometimes erratic, and many people stop taking the drugs as soon as they feel better, all of which leads to drug-resistant strains of the virus - now a huge problem in South Africa. (1)

I see the effects of this horrible disease everywhere. One mother I visit weekly can barely speak because of the constant coughing. Her voice comes out as a hoarse, strained whisper. I picked up another one of our kids' mothers on the side of the road leading out of the squatter camp. She had only managed to walk about 100 yards before having to lay down, calm her breathing, and get her coughing back under control. The clinic she was headed for is about a mile and a half away.

The overcrowding, lack of basic facilities, and poor hygiene associated with these squatter camps creates a fertile breeding ground for diseases like TB, and it is certain that many of our kids already carry this killer within their bodies. All that is needed is for HIV to set it loose.

Want to save a life? Help us reach these kids before it's too late.




1 "Waiting To Happen: HIV/AIDS in South Africa" (Walker, Reid, and Cornell), 2004.