A Teen Achieves Viral Suppression Thanks to Adolescent Corner
Malikeleko Raqhoe is an 18-year-old living near the eastern border of Lesotho, a small, mountainous nation in southern Africa. She is the last born in the family of three siblings. Their parents passed away when Malikeleko was a baby, and their maternal grandmother raised the children.
Malikeleko learned about her HIV status in 2016, when she was 12 years old. She fell ill, and her teacher took her to the clinic. She could not be tested in that moment because there was no parent or guardian present to provide consent.
“The next day I went to clinic with my grandmother, I tested and found out that I was positive, and enrolled on treatment,” says Malikeleko.

“I asked myself: why me? Out of my other siblings I was the only one infected by my mom,” she says. With psychosocial support available at the adolescent corner from health care workers and from other peers who were also living with HIV, and with the support of her family at home, she accepted her status and moved on.
Malikeleko is very active within her peer support group, a monthly teen club where adolescents with HIV share their experiences about living healthy with HIV.
When Malikeleko went for check-up in early January 2021, her viral load was high. When asked she said she travelled away from home during the 2020 festive season and her medication finished and she was not able to go for appointments. The health care worker at the adolescent corner provided enhanced adherence counseling and she tested again after a couple of months; the August results showed that she was virally suppressed.

The EGPAF Adolescents Nurse Sister Neo Mat’saba says that their adolescent corner provides comprehensive health services to all adolescents and young people from 10 years to 24 years both HIV negative and positive. Among the services provided are HIV testing and counseling services, antiretroviral treatment, TB screening and treatment, cervical cancer screening, pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PEP and PrEP), family planning awareness education, and psychosocial support. The corner features television and Wi-Fi to attract more young people to access the services.
However, Sister Mat’saba indicated that since the clinic is within a church-sponsored facility, family planning services are not offered; they only provide health education. Teenage pregnancy and early marriages of teenagers remain big challenges among adolescents in the Pitseng area, which leads Sister Mat’saba to request an additional mobile clinic to provide family planning services.
Makopano Letsatsi
Lesotho
Adolescent Identification, Care & Treatment