Soweto Aids Clinic

Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head and went to Soweto on tuesday to speak with with AIDs researchers at the local Baragwanath Hospital. I had no idea what to expect, Soweto has in my mind always been associated with violence. For those of you who have never heard of the place, it’s South Africa’s largest and most famous black township, the birthplace of a major uprising that eventually produced the overthrow of the white ruling Nationalist Party, which created the apartheid system in 1948. During the most violent years, a practice called “necklacing” was apparently fairly commonplace there. This was a black-on-black torture that involved draping a burning tire over someone’s neck, usually suspected informants who were thought to be tipping off police about resistance activities.

But, Soweto wasn’t burning as I was driven through it in my taxi, sent to collect me by the hospital staff, and there weren’t any people rioting in the streets. What I saw was an ordinary town with ordinary streetlights, gas stations, bus stops, and people going about ordinary lives. There’s a picture of it here, taken from the 12^th story of the hospital. I never thought to photograph Soweto from the car, I was too busy prepping for interviews with hospital sources.

We, that is myself and Cheryl Pellerin, another junket journalist, were met by Efthia Vardas, a young doctor who runs clinical trials for AIDs vaccines. She sat with us for an hour in a conference room talking about the challenges of making a vaccine for HIV, which infects an estimated 15 percent of South Africa’s population, roughly 6.5 million cases. Soweto residents flock here to sign up for clinical trials, which they see as the “last hope” for dealing with HIV, Vardas said, but unfortunately most of them don’t think to change their sexual behavior, which involves un-protected liaisons with lots and lots of people—the average male has two regular partners and the number can range up to six or more.

High infection rates make Soweto a good place to run clinical trials, Vardas said. All the vaccines tested here so far are made by foreign companies, though. Only two AIDs vaccines have been produced in South Africa, but the country doesn’t have the capacity to manufacture them, so they haven’t been tested yet, and possibly never will be, in part because more advanced vaccines are now being developed elsewhere.

After our meeting with Vardas, we were shown around the clinic by Matilda Mogale, a Zulu nurse, around 60 years old. She knew all the employees by name, spoke all their languages and everyone we met smiled and laughed when she came around. These people have to support each other as best they can. Half the people who come here asking to be tested turn out to be HIV positive.