HIVEX: Arrival in Durban

Durban city centre seen from Umhlanga Rocks beach

Arrived at Durban airport at 10 a,m. Me and Alaena, who looks impossibly stunning, despite a long flight. No bags on the carousel - an anxious few minutes until we discover that our luggage is still in Johannesburg, along with quite a lot of other bags.

Alaena has flown from London take part in this treatment

A long time getting an SA phone sim - seems very difficult to download codes & get it working, and by the time we have done that the next plane has arrived and our luggage too. Taxi drive along motorway past the beautiful new stadium built for the world cup - an immaculately maintained road full of expensive new cars - this place is so affluent - of course we know it isn’t, altogether, but from this journey, one would never guess.

Our home for the next two weeks is a pair of cottages owned by Cathy, a 76 year old Dubliner, garden gnomes in the garden competing with red-headed Indian Mynah birds and delicate handed monkeys.

Meet Michaela, and Danielle, who are going to be filming treatment, and Clive, who will be experiencing it. Michaela phones Jess, visiting Durban, and she has another candidate for treatment. Naledi* works for Jess’s boyfriend’s family. We arrange for blood tests - I am glad that it is not me having them - seven tests to be carried out - not standard CD4 and viral load tests but a whole battery of tests that will show the state of different white blood cells - living dying and dead, will test for viral particles in the blood, and most importantly, will test the level of apoptosis or “programmed cell death”. It is the level of apoptosis rather than so-called “viral load” or CD4 count which is now recognised as the most accurate measure of the progress of disease in a person infected with HIV. Our cells are dying all the time- this is a normal process - as they die they get replaced by new cells made in the bone marrow. An ordinary person has around 5 % of dying cells at any point in time - in other words his level of apoptosis is 5% - but in a person with HIV/AIDS this can rise - to 10%, and up to 40 or 50% - that is when a simple infection can prove deadly.

Shopping for food - the Spar supermarket is like Waitrose or M & S - but better. Pretty much, the food is the same as I could find in North London. And it’s expensive - North London prices, more or less. Eventually, I realise that there are two economies which are completely unconnected - one lot of people buy packaged, air-conditioned, beautifully lit fruit vegetables, sushi, olives, rye bread, and croissants, and the other group barely earns enough to buy a daily cappuccino, and shop in township markets, unseen, at prices that are a fraction, fortunately, of those of the cellophane wrapped equivalents.

A meal of chicken, little lamb sausages, salad. We discover that Clive is a wonderful cook, washer-upper and generally organised person. Every group should have him, but I want us to keep him for us..
Bedtime.

*Her name has been changed to protect her privacy.