In newsletter no. 26, deacon Thomas Müller describes meeting a patient whom he calls “Sipho”. The newsletter’s introduction explains that names are pseudonyms and that Müller sometimes combined several cases and scenes. This is an anonymised account from the AIDS support work of that time.
When the team collected Sipho from his home by ambulance, he was so weak that they feared for his life. Six months later Müller met him again at the Care Centre reception. Sipho was standing, visibly stronger, and said that he was coping well with his antiretroviral medication.
According to the newsletter, Sipho had found work again in nearby iSithebe and repaired his home. Müller describes the joy of seeing how care and treatment helped a seriously ill person return to everyday life. The source gives no account of Sipho’s later life.
The archive photograph from the same newsletter shows a HAART programme home visit. The people pictured are not identified as Sipho.
Source: Newsletter no. 26 (2006/2007), p. 3, “Being on first-name-terms with the AIDS death”.