Botswana – A gravesite in Botswana ©Dominic Chavez
Botswana – Coffins at Botswana’s largest coffin factory ©Dominic Chavez
Senegal – The government of Senegal oversees a public health program for registered sex workers. Clinics provide them with basic health care and regular testing for sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. Early it it’s Initiative for Access to Antiretroviral Drugs, Senegal provided free antiretrovirals to sex workers in need of treatment.©Dominic Chavez
Nigeria – HIV prevalence rates already exceed 5 percent among Nigerian women attending prenatal clinics. ©Dominic Chavez
Nigeria – Former soldier Mohammed Farouk suffered stigmatization and discrimination when he went public with his HIV infection relatively early in the Nigerian epidemic. ©Dominic Chavez
Senegal – An HIV/AIDS research lab in Senegal. ©Dominic Chavez
Nigeria – John Idoko, a professor and physician at Jos University Teaching Hospital in Nigeria, talks with clinicians from Jos and Jengre near the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Jengre. ©Dominic Chavez
Tanzania – Treatment of HIV in children poses more challenges for clinicians than treatment in adults. Syrups and pills for children are more expensive than adult formulations and need to be changed as the child grows. Yet children taking antiretrovirals face a much greater challenge: the reality of lifelong medication and regular doctor visits. ©Dominic Chavez
Botswana – An AIDS patient has his blood pressure taken during a checkup in Botswana. ©Dominic Chavez
Nigeria – Access to treatment has lifted the death sentence for hundreds of thousands of HIV-infected Nigerians and encouraged many others to be tested. Even so, the stigma of the disease continues to permeate society, and patients receiving lifesaving treatment are not always willing to be identified. ©Dominic Chavez
Botswana – Tendani Gaolathe, an internist, examines one of her regular patients, Marea Maroku. From 2003 to 2008, this model patient took a four-hour bus ride every month to pick up her AIDS drugs. Now with the national antiretroviral treatment program decentralized, Maroku can receive clinical care closer to home. ©Dominic Chavez
Tanzania – In Kigamboni, Tanzania, orphans and other vulnerable children receive free mattresses and bed kits that include insecticide-treated bed nets to prevent malaria. Children are at high risk for malaria in endemic areas, and malaria is a common comorbidity seen with HIV disease. The two infections interact in a lethal cycle; malaria increases susceptibility to HIV infection, and HIV viral load can spike during malarial fevers. ©Dominic Chavez
Botswana – Emmanuel Tawana, a police officer, has been taking antiretrovirals through the Masa Program, Botswana’s national AIDS treatment initiative, since 2003. Masa is the Setswana word for “new dawn.” With his HIV infection under control, Tawana can look forward to many new dawns with his two young daughters. ©Dominic Chavez
Botswana – Moses Selebogo has worked in the Princess Marina Hospital morgue since 1987. At the height of the AIDS crisis in Botswana, the morgue was always filled to capacity. He now measures the success of the country’s AIDS treatment program by the vacancies at the morgue. On the day this photograph was taken, all the drawers were empty. ©Dominic Chavez