Sharing resources to support HIV care
vomit, hallucinations, headaches, pain
In some households, various income sources were pooled to support members living with HIV. This included prioritizing food and additional medication that help to ease the side effects of ARVs available at the time. By managing household income in this way, families were able to support treatment adherence. While ART has improved over time and most ARVs currently available are well-tolerated, at the time of data collection some participants noted that they often experienced discomfort or pain, which they attributed to side effects from their ARV medication. For instance, Lawrence and Nontobeko (both living with HIV and ‘getting by’ through the government child support grant they receive for their children) had to put money aside to buy additional pain medicine (over-the-counter). According to them, they needed this medication ‘to ease the ARVs’ side effects’ as experienced by Lawrence:I get headaches from taking ARVs. Every day I must drink two Grandpas [paracetamol] and pain tablets because without them, I won’t come right [reported hallucinations]. So we take some of the money from the kids’ grant and buy these pills from the chemist (Lawrence, 51, Male).There were other instances where spending household income on HIV care-related expenses supported the adherence of household members living with HIV. For instance, Nomfundiso who stays with her adult brother and sister explained how her brother, who was the main breadwinner at the time, offered the limited available funds to cover her healthcare costs:Whenever I ate, I’d just vomit, and I lost energy. My brother was working at the supermarket back then. He insisted on giving me R200 [$13] to go to the [private] doctor. The doctor gave me medication to regain strength and referred me to the [local public] clinic (Nomfundiso, 45, Female).In this case, the health of the person living with HIV was deemed a priority, and efforts were made to seek care for Nomfundiso, regardless of the financial burden on the household.In some households, PLHIV were able to generate income while accessing care through the help of relatives. For instance, Bongiwe (48) who worked as a domestic worker would send her daughter, Linda (19) who was also diagnosed with HIV, to fetch her treatment from the clinic while she was at work. Bongiwe explained how that kept her adherent to ART:Sometimes I send Linda [to the clinic] when I am busy with something thing or when [Linda] is free with no school work to do and even when I just started working she would fetch my medication for me (Bongiwe, 48, Female).In this case, people were able to balance the act of ‘getting by’ with their health care appointments.