Medical students aim to curb HIV/AIDS
crisis in Botswana
[ UniNews Vol. 15, No. 6 17 April - 1 May 2006 ]
By Janine Sim-Jones
Doing something: Above, Sennye Mogale and Max Nhlatho
with the ‘father and mother of BAM’ Roger
Short and Margo Collins.
[ Photo: Michael Silver ]
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United against AIDS.
[ Photo: Michael Silver ] |
The harsh reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Botswana
really hit home for Maxwell D Nhlatho when he realised that
at 25 years of age – if he achieved the average life
expectancy of his countrymen – he had only 14 more
years to live.
“In Australia hospitals in the main are for old people,’’
says the University of Melbourne fifth-year medical student.
“In Botswana it’s quite the contrary; it is
a lot of young blokes my age. When I go home to practise
medicine this is something that is going to be quite challenging.’’
Mr Nhlatho, a University of Melbourne medical student,
is currently completing his clinical training at the Austin
Hospital and will return home to do his internship in 2008.
He is studying at Melbourne as part of an agreement in
which the University accepts eight Botswanan students to
study medicine each year.
The agreement is part of a wider collaboration which sees
the University of Melbourne working with the University
of Botswana to establish its first medical school, so that
the country does not keep having to send its students overseas
for their medical training.
When Botswana’s aspiring doctors return home, they
face the challenge of a health system battling an epidemic
which sees almost 38 per cent of adults infected with the
HIV/AIDS virus.
It is a devastating statistic and when students are thousands
of kilometres away, it could be tempting to lose sight of
the challenges at home.
But Mr Nhlatho and his fellow students were determined
this should not happen and Botswana AIDS Melbourne, or BAM,
was born.
Initially it started as an informal group that met at the
Royal Women’s Hospital in the evenings, then at the
University of Melbourne on Saturdays. Today it boasts about
70 members – or 70 per cent of the Botswana student
population in Victoria – and a mission to help decrease
the prevalence of HIV-AIDS in Botswana.
“Botswana AIDS Melbourne was an attempt to keep ourselves
in touch with the reality of Botswana when we are here,’’
Mr Nhlatho says.
“In Botswana you are continually reminded of the
problem (HIV/AIDS), you hear about people dying, about people
who are very sick. You constantly hear the A (Abstinence)
B (Be Faithful) C (Condomise) message.
“But once you are here you don’t see that any
more – you don’t see it on the TV or hear it
on the radio – and you can easily forget that it is
your priority because you tend to prioritise the things
that you live with more.
“Forming BAM was a way we could do something as a
group, and give us a voice for communicating with the authorities
and people in Botswana.’’
In its early days, Botswana AIDS Melbourne was helped by
seed funding provided by the University’s Dean of
Medicine Professor James Angus and Professor Roger Short
(Medicine).
Mr Nhlatho was the ‘caretaker president’ until
official elections in 2005. The group has since held two
successful annual conferences, attracting an array of guest
speakers including the Botswana High Commissioner to Australia,
Molosiwa Selepeng.
The conference material changes annually, in 2005 the theme
was HIV/AIDS: a multisectoral problem, which showed that
HIV/AIDS was not just a problem confronting the health sector,
as students from other faculties such as engineering and
arts discussed how HIV/AIDS impacted on all aspects of life.
BAM has also held a successful fundraiser with the Cantorion
Cymereig Victorian Welsh Choir to raise funds to help increase
the awareness of HIV/AIDS prevention in Botswana.
Recent elections saw Mr Nhlatho and Bolokang Jones Makhura,
a third year medical student, elected president and vice-president.
The group continues to keep close links with medical professionals
back home and is working on projects to reinforce the prevention
message to young Botswana people through regular newspaper
articles in Botswana.
Outgoing president Sennye Mogale still remembers an HIV/AIDS
talk presented at her high school by a woman who was infected
with AIDS.
“The woman was talking about how she was infected
because she was raped by her uncle and as a result she decided
to infect others by sleeping with them,’’ she
says.
Ms Mogale says she did not judge the woman, but the talk
illustrated the lack of information many young people had
about AIDS – despite the strong health messages being
promoted by the Botswana Government.
She says that in particular, there is a disturbing trend
of older men infecting young girls.
She also believes that some complacency may have crept
in as the result of the Botswana Government’s decision
to distribute free anti-retroviral drugs to all of those
infected with HIV/AIDS.
“Because the anti-retrovirals have been successful
in prolonging lives and stopping the symptoms of HIV/AIDS
many young people have forgotten the ABC message. But we
have to keep reminding them that the best situation is not
to get AIDS.’’
Ms Mogale is now in her fourth year of medicine at Melbourne
and is undertaking her Advanced Medical Science year with
North Western Mental Health Services. She will return home
to practise medicine in 2009, but says she may consider
further study to become a psychiatrist.
However, in the meantime she is dedicated to spreading
the prevention message in Botswana during her yearly visits
home.
“People are starting to have sex at a very young
age and we need to try and talk as openly as possible about
sex,’’ she says.
“There are cultural attitudes that make it difficult
to talk to a teacher about sex, but hopefully it is easier
for them to talk with younger people such as medical students
and people from Botswana AIDS Melbourne.’’
Although the group consists almost entirely of students
– two of its members – Ms Margo Collins, a personal
assistant in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health
Sciences, and Professor Roger Short – have been dubbed
by the group as the “mother and father” of BAM.
Ms Collins recalls meeting Mr Nhlatho when he came into
her office to meet the Faculty’s Associate Dean (Academic)
Associate Professor Susan Elliott.
“When I met Max I found we had very much in common.
I had previously worked for the Victorian AIDS Council and
I found that I could be a good resource for the group in
helping them form links with local HIV organisations,’’
she says.
“I was blown away to meet a group of people with
such a strong sense of purpose to improve the lives of others
and to see first and second year uni students showing such
incredible leadership and dedication.
“They are prepared to take the future of their country
on their shoulders.’’
Professor Roger Short is known internationally for his
research into the effectiveness of lemon juice in preventing
HIV transmission.
He has spent much time in Africa, including living in a
mud hut in Uganda for six months, and developed a huge love
of Africa and its people.
He has taught many of the Botswanan students and he says
other medical students at the University of Melbourne can
learn much from them.
“I was giving a lecture to a group of first year
medical students a few weeks ago and I asked if there were
any students from Botswana in the audience,’’
he says.
“Three very shy girls up the back put up their hands.
I told the students that these girls could tell them stories
from back home that you haven’t even dreamed of .’’
Professor Short has also supervised a number of the Botswanan
students’ research projects. In particular, he is
full of praise for the work done by students Modise Modise
and Mr Nhlatho.
Mr Modise’s PhotoVoice project armed Botswana secondary
school students with disposable cameras to document the
impact of AIDS on their community.
Mr Nhlatho’s research found that male circumcision
significantly reduced HIV acquisition in men. He found the
practice was widely accepted by health professionals in
Botswana and could be re-introduced.
His thesis is now being used as a background paper by the
World Health Organisation.
Professor Short says the young medical students are the
key to combating the rapid spread of HIV.
“It is a disease that spreads because of ignorance,
and young people are the ones who need to teach others how
to prevent the disease – not some old white face but
young Africans talking to their peer groups,’’
he says.
In 2008 Mr Nhlatho will be back practising in Botswana.
He says the hospitals will not be as well equipped as those
in Australia, despite enormous demands placed on them by
the AIDS epidemic.
Botswana has always trained its doctors overseas, and in
the past many have decided not to return, but Mr Nhlatho
says this is not an option.
“In Botswana I can make much more of a difference,’’
he says.
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