Why isn’t better access to HIV treatment enough?
Zipporah got an HIV test in 2016. But by the time she came to our clinic in Homa Bay, Kenya, the following year, she had developed Kaposi’s Sarcoma.
It’s a form of cancer that can appear in the late stages of HIV infection, especially if effective antiviral (ARV) treatment is not available.
Our doctors scheduled her for chemotherapy right away.
We treat many patients like Zipporah, who are living with advanced HIV and facing a range of life-threatening illnesses that are hard to treat.
We continue to see very high death rates in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa among people living with the virus - even where they have had access to ARV treatment.
The majority of these patients have advanced HIV, or AIDS.
The world has come far in expanding treatment for those living with the virus in sub-Saharan Africa, the heart of the epidemic.
But without affordable medical tools adapted to people’s lives and the conditions where we work, many people will continue to die of complications from HIV.
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What MSF staff are saying
Photograph by Kris Pannecoucke
"The big challenge we face at CHK hospital is that these patients often arrive at a very late stage. We fight to keep them alive but often we know very little about them. Their status is often hidden from their family members who bring them in.”"
Dr. Willy Tshimbombo, Medical team leader, Kinshasa, DRC
