‘I don’t want my boy to be positive’: pregnant women face sky-high viral loads as cuts hit HIV care in Africa

A march in Cape Town in 2001, protesting against Thabo Mbeki’s Aids policies. About 70,000 babies a year were born with HIV, despite drugs being available to stop this. Photograph: Getty

Zola Madikane* was born HIV positive in 2004. Put on antiretrovirals (ARVs) as a baby, she has been on the life-saving medication ever since and has lived a normal life. No longer. “Now, I have a problem,” she says.

For most of her life her viral load (the amount of HIV in her blood) has been undetectable. “When I went for my February clinic visit, I didn’t get my pills. They told me ‘shortage of staff’ and ‘come back another day’. I came back a few times, but it was the same story.”