YOUNG people are scared to reveal their HIV status to their parents.
Instead they turn to health workers because they feel that their relatives are disgusted by them when they use gloves while caring for them.
With parents increasingly being forced to care for their terminally ill offspring, this heightens the fear of older people being at risk of being infected, as in the case of a 58-year-old woman from Ivory Park near Midrand, contracted HIV in 2000 after nursing her sick son without protecting herself.
"I thought he had TB and always wore a mask to protect myself when nursing him," she said.
When he didn't get better, she took him to a private doctor who tested him and found he was HIV positive.
"But [the doctor] did not tell me how to protect myself," said the mother, who didn't know about HIV, thinking it was "a disease affecting people from Mozambique and Durban".
"I used to shave my eyebrows with the same razor blade he used to shave his hair."
A 63-year-old KwaZulu-Natal mother is now taking care of her three grandchildren after her three daughters died in quick succession.
The woman said her daughters died in 2006, 2008 and 2012, leaving her with the three young children to take care of, as well as her four unemployed sons.
"They never told me what their blood test results revealed, but I suspected that the cause of death was the new illness [HIV] after I saw other children dying like mine."
But the grandmother was proactive in using gloves to protect herself while taking care of her daughters .
"People say you must protect yourself from disease," she said.
Recent research by Children in Distress Network found there were an estimated four million orphans in South Africa and half of that number are orphaned through HIV .
KwaZulu-Natal was found to have the highest proportion of orphans at 23.1% and there are many grandparents burdened with taking care of their grandchildren.
A 60-year-old grandmother of Mid Illovo in KwaZulu-Natal is taking care of two grandchildren left behind by her only child when she died in 2006.
Uncertain of what caused her death, she says: "I think it's one of the new diseases . she hid her illness."
Emkhambathini healthcare worker Dumisile Ngubane said young people were scared to reveal their status to their parents.
"There are people who hide their status but secretly take ARVs. They reveal their status only to healthcare workers. We counsel them once they get better to disclose," she said.
"We see the symptoms, but we are unable to say [that it is HIV] without them getting tested. Many people live in denial," said another community healthcare worker Nonku Mkhize.
ndabezithat@timesmedia.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
Elderly face risk caring for ill kids
YOUNG people are scared to reveal their HIV status to their parents.
Instead they turn to health workers because they feel that their relatives are disgusted by them when they use gloves while caring for them.
With parents increasingly being forced to care for their terminally ill offspring, this heightens the fear of older people being at risk of being infected, as in the case of a 58-year-old woman from Ivory Park near Midrand, contracted HIV in 2000 after nursing her sick son without protecting herself.
"I thought he had TB and always wore a mask to protect myself when nursing him," she said.
When he didn't get better, she took him to a private doctor who tested him and found he was HIV positive.
"But [the doctor] did not tell me how to protect myself," said the mother, who didn't know about HIV, thinking it was "a disease affecting people from Mozambique and Durban".
"I used to shave my eyebrows with the same razor blade he used to shave his hair."
A 63-year-old KwaZulu-Natal mother is now taking care of her three grandchildren after her three daughters died in quick succession.
The woman said her daughters died in 2006, 2008 and 2012, leaving her with the three young children to take care of, as well as her four unemployed sons.
"They never told me what their blood test results revealed, but I suspected that the cause of death was the new illness [HIV] after I saw other children dying like mine."
But the grandmother was proactive in using gloves to protect herself while taking care of her daughters .
"People say you must protect yourself from disease," she said.
Recent research by Children in Distress Network found there were an estimated four million orphans in South Africa and half of that number are orphaned through HIV .
KwaZulu-Natal was found to have the highest proportion of orphans at 23.1% and there are many grandparents burdened with taking care of their grandchildren.
A 60-year-old grandmother of Mid Illovo in KwaZulu-Natal is taking care of two grandchildren left behind by her only child when she died in 2006.
Uncertain of what caused her death, she says: "I think it's one of the new diseases . she hid her illness."
Emkhambathini healthcare worker Dumisile Ngubane said young people were scared to reveal their status to their parents.
"There are people who hide their status but secretly take ARVs. They reveal their status only to healthcare workers. We counsel them once they get better to disclose," she said.
"We see the symptoms, but we are unable to say [that it is HIV] without them getting tested. Many people live in denial," said another community healthcare worker Nonku Mkhize.
ndabezithat@timesmedia.co.za
For more stories like this one, be sure to buy the Sowetan newspaper from Mondays to Fridays
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