Médecins Sans Frontières - Dr Stephen Watiti: HIV Thriver

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSF239232

Date taken / Date Recorded 31/07/2018 12:00 AM

Country Uganda

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Duration 5m12s

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Additional Information / Shotlist Text slides:

DR STEPHEN WATITI, MILDMAY HIV CLINIC, UGANDA

AIDS SURVIVOR of 20 YEARS & ADVOCATE

My venture into medicine started in 1975 when I was at high school. I got an accident and for a whole year I was stuck in hospital.

But having spent almost a year in hospital, I decided I wanted to be a doctor really. And so I joined the medical school in 1979, I graduated in 1984, started working as a doctor in 19847:35 With hindsight I think I got infected around 1985 86 because that’s when I developed some signs which I now know as HIV.

So over that time from 85, 86 to 93 almost, 8 or 9 years, without being detected… and yet I was a doctor.

In 1993, my wife Margaret had become quite ill and so we advised to do an HIV test, we did an HIV test, she was positive and I was also positive. That is when I knew for sure that I had HIV.

And so it is until 1999, when I got the fifth attack of TB, and this was MDR-TB, multi drug resistant TB… and then I developed a cancer called Kaposi Sarcoma, I had sores in my mouth and even in my lungs, I could cough out blood, known as pulmonary Kaposi Sarcoma, and it’s a killer, very few people recover

And then at the same time, I developed meningitis, which is inflammation of the linings of the brain. So there are three – TB, MDRTB Kaposi Sarcoma meningitis, each of them is a killer and I had all of them at a go in 1999

By 2003, I was sick again, I got another bout of TB. But luckily around that time is when I came and I got a job with Mildmay and in 2004 they had started receiving money for the PEPFAR programme and so I started receiving free ARVs,

And because now, I could have the supply more regularly, and the side effects were less I started taking them well, and you can imagine from 2004 till now, I’m on the same combination and my viral load is suppressed all the time, and I’ve never been admitted again in hospital

We should learn from this, okay such painful experiences like I’ve gone through

We can forget that people for example in Uganda are still dying, and I’m sure in other countries. In Uganda we are losing 20,000 annually to AIDS related causes.

So we need to really look at what kills these people, and its mainly opportunistic infections. What causes OIs? Its because the CD4 count has become so low. CD4 count I always tell my patients is like your personal protection unit, your PPU is so weak, the few who are there are sick themselves so they can’t protect you. We need to keep saying this.

We cannot afford to forget the fact that people who are infected can actually quickly transition into advanced disease, even when they are on ARVs, if they don’t swallow them well, because of either side effects, or stock outs because of funding or other things.

We need to put our act together and make sure that we look for every person that is infected with this disease and put them on good treatment and treat them well.

My government and all other governments need to invest more in caring for the total person and not just the virus alone

I think I’d like to call myself as a thriver more than a survivor. We can thrive if we know what to do.

I’m here, I had less than 100 (CD4) I’m okay, I’m thriving and there are many people who are thriving so don’t write off people, people who have less than 100. I’ve seen people who’ve had less than 5 CD4.

No one has a list of who’s going to die next. So I can live. So I live a day at a go, but I live as if I’m going to live a lot of years. I’m now 65 and I’m hoping to live up to 90.

Text slides:

STEPHEN SURVIVED AIDS SO HE COULD HELP OTHERS

INCLUDE CARE FOR ADVANCED HIV DISEASE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV

Closing: HIV-ADC logo

Dr Stephen Watiti: HIV Thriver | INT VERS

Dr Stephen Watiti: HIV Thriver | INT VERS