My double tragedy - Georgina Ahamefule
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Mrs Georgina Ahamefule, 41, was one of the people living with
HIV/AIDS that were presented at the opening of the African Summit on
HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Other Related Infectious Diseases that
opened in Abuja, Nigeria on Thursday.
Georgina however faces a double jeopardy. Apart from being HIV-
positive, she's TB-infected. Only few weeks ago, she was in the news
when a Nigerian judge barred her from entering a courtroom where the
case she filed against her ex-employer was being heard. An auxiliary
nurse, Georgina had been dismissed from work by her boss when he
tested her without her consent and found out she was HIV-positive.
On Thursday, she told her story at the cavernous Africa Hall of the
International Conference Centre, Abuja in the presence of 10 African
heads of states and governments and other world leaders including UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and ex-US president Bill Clinton. Her
story:
My name is Georgina Ahamefule and I am 41 years old. I was diagnosed
with HIV infection in 1995. Last year in October, I contracted tuber-
culosis and have since been taking medication for it. Today, I stand
before you all looking healthy but this has come and continues to
come at a great 'cost' - cost to my family, cost to my social and
civil life and cost to my economic life. The puzzling things is that
all these 'costs' could have been reduced tremendously if, society at
large, and decision-makers in particular, had paid more attention to
what they can do to alleviate the suffering of less fortunate people
like me.
In this country, it is our government's official policy to give free
drugs for the treatment of TB. Yet for the past six months that I
have been taking anti-TB medication I have had to purchase the drugs
from the private market at a very high cost indeed and sometimes
these drugs are not even available. My doctor has advised me that if
I disrupt my treatment schedule and am unable to complete it, I run
the risk of developing an almost incurable form of TB called multi-
drug resistant TB. That will indeed be a double sentence for death!
Yet all this can be prevented if you, our decision-makers, would take
the right action and make TB medication available and accessible to
us. I am a voice representing thousands of TB sufferers in this coun-
try and our dear continent of Africa. Many of us are PLWHAs. If today
we cannot get drugs to cure us of AIDS, at least, you our leaders can
secure for us anti-TB drugs that are available, effective, cheaper
and can definitely help to prolong our lives.
I would like to appeal to you all our honourable leaders: we the peo-
ple of Africa are the greatest economic asset you have, yet look at
us being slowly but surely wiped out by these two deadly diseases. I
wonder what the future of our countries is going to look like in the
next 20 years if you do not act fast. You definitely have the power
to change the destiny of our dear continent of Africa. If a defini-
tive cure for AIDS is not yet in sight, please we surely have a de-
finitive cure for TB. Please make this accessible and affordable to
us and we can continue to contribute to our collective socio-economic
development.
Honourable leaders, the future of Africa lies in your hands and the
time to act is NOW! Please, act now and we will win.
I THANK YOU.
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Coverage provided by Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria in
collaboration with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).
Summit Media Centre
Mr. Omololu Falobi
Tel: +234-9-234-5381, 234-5413, 234-5415
Fax: +234-9-234-5487
mailto:abjsummit@skannet.com
Summit websites:
http://www.fmh-abujasummit.org
http://www.oau-oua.org/afrsummit/index.htm
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