By Justine Odionyi, Head of Disease, HIV, DNDi
When Zikhona, a young woman from New Crossroads in Cape Town, arrived at Khayelitsha Hospital, she thought she was going to die. She was in severe pain, had an excruciating, crippling headache, a stiff neck, and was almost blind. She was diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis – a disease she never heard of before. Fortunately, she received treatment in time and survived.
But many people don’t not have this chance. Every year, around 180,000 people with HIV die from cryptococcal meningitis – 135,000 of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
As an HIV clinician and researcher, I have witnessed first-hand the devastation brought by this disease. And I am outraged, because I know that most of these deaths could be avoided. Many people with cryptococcal meningitis die simply because they aren’t diagnosed or can’t access the treatment that could save their life.
