‘They give me hope’: Beating HIV stigma with community support in Zimbabwe

Mutare, Zimbabwe – When Wonder Mwatamawenyu tested positive for HIV as a young man more than two decades ago, he thought he had signed his death warrant.

His society told him that HIV and AIDS, which were spreading rapidly in Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s, had no treatment.

Mwatamawenyu tested HIV-positive in 2003 after going to donate blood at a health facility near his house in Matika village, just outside Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe. “I was shocked. I did not believe it,” the 51-year-old father of six told media.

“I later got sick and health workers encouraged me to take antiretroviral therapy (ART) medicine which I have been taking since 2004,” the tall, wiry man said, referring to the standard HIV treatment that was first rolled out in the country that same year.

Mwatamawenyu is one of about 1.3 million people living with HIV in Zimbabwe today. In the 20 years since he was diagnosed, much has changed.

When ART was first introduced around the world, patients used to take a combination of many drugs, but the treatment is now available in fixed-dose combinations that allow people to take just one or two pills. Taken every day for the rest of a person’s life, ART remains the most accessible HIV treatment globally because it is effective in stopping the virus from replicating in the body and is cost-effective, particularly in low-income communities.

Though ART does not cure HIV and AIDS – there is no cure – it helps patients’ immune systems and reduces mortality and morbidity. The disease is also no longer a death sentence, despite its seriousness.

AIDS-related deaths peaked in Zimbabwe in the 1990s and new HIV infections were high in the early 2000s when Mwatamawenyu was diagnosed. But the figures have declined over the years because of interventions like ART, and awareness campaigns on preventing mother-to-child transmission.

For those living with the disease, many say the sense of community they have managed to build has been a lifeline – more than just the medical care.