06 August 2009
When 19-year-old Cecilia arrived at her local hospital, suffering from a mystery illness that had stripped her of half her body weight and left her unable to walk unaided, medical staff were unable to diagnose the cause.
And, as her condition worsened, the only other place for the apprentice seamstress to go held out little more hope. Dispatched to a prayer camp, Cecilia was offered a combination of herbal remedies for her ailments and prayers to drive away the evil spirits that, her family believed, must be causing her illness.
In some parts of Ghana, this is often the fate of people with unexplained, hard to treat conditions. When they should be receiving skilled medical attention, they are forced to make do with folk medicines and prayers. But with decent clinics often far away and expensive to get to, and old beliefs dying hard, they have no alternative.
A lifeline
While she was at the camp, however, Cecilia came across an unexpected lifeline. A mobile health unit, part of a DFID-supported fleet tasked with bringing HIV services to rural Ghana, had arrived in the area and was offering HIV testing and counselling. Desperate to seize any opportunity to identify her illness, Cecilia wasted no time in getting tested.
When Cecilia’s result came back positive, she was referred to a DFID-funded health facility. Here, further screening revealed she had pulmonary tuberculosis. She was immediately put on life-saving antiretroviral drugs and a course of TB treatment.
Now, after three months treatment and counselling, Cecilia has regained her strength and confidence. ”I was so sure I was dying,” she says, looking back. ”I didn’t believe I could live again - these people saved my life.”
Cecilia now has a future to look forward to – she dreams about completing her apprenticeship and becoming a fashion designer. But it isn’t just her own future that has been transformed – her neighbours, having witnessed the amazing improvements to Cecilia’s health, are eager to know their own HIV status and, when struck by unexplained illnesses, are less likely to blame unseen spirits, and more likely to seek medical help.
Facts and stats
- The Mobile Voluntary Counselling and Testing (M-VCT) unit was set up with funding from DFID through the Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) and Family Health International (FHI).
- With DFID support approximately 14,000 people voluntarily accessed counselling and testing over an eight-month period in 2007/08, including 1,174 pregnant women.
- Between 2006 and 2009 DFID provided £7.5 million through the Multi-Sectoral HIV/AIDS Programme (M-SHAP) to support the Ghanaian government’s HIV/AIDS programmes.
- Through DFID support for “strategic behavioural communication” activities, including M-VCT, an estimated 84,162 people have been provided with information about HIV/AIDS and treatment.