allAfrica.com: Senegal: Living With AIDS - Mabeye's Story (Page 1 of 2)

This is the story of Mabeye. He is 41 and has now moved back to St Louis, in the north of Senegal. The incident that changed Mabeye's life forever took place in another town at the sugar company, in Richard Toll, where he worked as a laboratory analyst.

That area of Senegal is well known as a crossroads and trading post. Richard Toll is where, after work one day, Mabeye met a woman selling trinkets. He bought some earrings and they got talking.

The woman was looking for somewhere to stay. Mabeye offered to put her up at his house for the week. They had unprotected sex. Later, after suffering from a lingering fever that seemed like malaria, he tested positive for HIV. At the time, Mabeye's wife had just had their third child and was living away from him in St Louis.

He said he was feeling lonely and took in the unknown woman "because her behaviour seemed impeccable, she appeared well brought up and clean." Mabeye (his first name - he did not wish to give his last) insists the jewellery seller was not a prostitute. He says she did not ask for money, but he gave her 'something' anyway.

"She came to do some business in Richard Toll - an area that promotes a lot of trade. At the end of each month, women come from all over Senegal to Richard Toll to sell their goods and people get to know each other. That's how I met the woman. She was a street trader and I'm sure that she doesn't go to nightclubs and bars," said Mabeye, who describes himself as a devout Muslim.

He said he had led a blameless life before that, and had never committed adultery till then. "I don't indulge in debauchery. I don't go to clubs and bars, I don't move around with prostitutes. I come from a religious background. I was infected by a sexual dalliance that I should not have had. Because of this one chance encounter, this one slip, perhaps I was punished by God".

Mabeye said he realized that he was not well in 1997, during the Muslim religious feast of Eid Al Adha, known as Tabaski (the feast of the lamb) in French-speaking West Africa. "I came home and, after having slaughtered the sacrificial ram for the feast, I started feeling feverish."

His symptoms, he said, were typical of malaria. He was shivering, ran a high fever and was treated for malaria for two weeks. That made no difference. Then his mother died and he fell seriously ill, with dizzy spells, vomiting and persistent diarrhoea and exhaustion. "I was losing my strength and getting weaker and weaker by the day and the diarrhoea persisted." Finally, Mabeye was admitted to hospital where he lay for two weeks, being monitored before being tested for HIV.

His test proved positive which he described as a huge shock. "I was hurt. The news really affected me. My real worry was for my wife and children. I knew I was finished and that, eventually, I was going to die, so I was especially concerned about my family and the future of my children."

Mabeye said he prayed hard. "I put myself in the hands of God and prayed to God to help me change my behaviour, because I knew that I was living on lost time and I didn't have long to live."

The forty-one year old looked gaunt and drawn and complained of constant pains in his hands and legs as he spoke to allAfrica.com and a group of Senegalese and international journalists at the main hospital in St Louis where he receives his weekly medication. His weight has see-sawed, falling to a low of 36kg at his weakest. "I tell you, I thought I was on my way out. Seriously I was close to death when I was in hospital. But I think with the power of medicine I have regained some of my weight." Mabeye now averages 55kg, compared with 70kg before his illness.

As he spoke, Mabeye looked meek and regretful that he had caused his wife and family pain, with the "chance sexual encounter" which led to his illness.

But he said he became more optimistic when his wife tested negative for HIV: "So that proves my point that I had been faithful to her all along. As soon as I fell sick and I realised I was HIV-positive, I stopped having sexual relations with my wife."

Asked why he did not protect himself and his partner, by using condoms, during his brief extra-marital affair, Mabeye's response was spontaneous and was one repeated in different parts of Senegal from men ranging from dock workers to health workers: "You know, condoms are for those guys whose sexual behaviour demands it, profligates and serial adulterers. But I'm not that sort of man. I don't frequent that sort of company. That's perhaps the reason I don't use condoms. The thought of AIDS couldn't have been further from my mind."

The United Nations and the authorities in Senegal hail the country as one of Africa's successes in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The prevalence of HIV infection among adults in Senegal stands at a comparatively low one per cent.

The central government in Dakar, with key religious institutions in a country with an predominantly Muslim population, started its HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention campaign early, in the late 1980s, when other African countries had not even begun to consider the potential impact of the disease on their populations, economies, work force and health sectors.

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