Threatened Hope - PEPFAR and Health in Africa

Mr. C. had been aged by his life circumstances. Like most of the South African clinic's patients, he was malnourished and frail but had a tenacity that had sustained him through his HIV diagnosis and his first bout of tuberculosis several years earlier. Cows, chickens, and patients lounged outside the clinic in the blistering heat of a waning South African summer. From the window, I watched them gravitate to the shade of a giant jacaranda tree. The electricity was out for the fourth time that morning, and beads of perspiration dotted our bodies as we waited. It would be hours before the x-ray machine, lights, and air conditioner returned to life. Doctor, you have another patient, the nurse announced, though I was neither a doctor nor supposed to be seeing patients. I was a fourth-year medical student posted to a rural district hospital ...