Every day, Luyanda Ngcobo's routine is the same: It starts with a trip to the back cupboard, where safely hidden away is a bottle of nevirapine, an antiretroviral pill he has to take twice a day for the rest of his life.
"Some young people don't want to take the pills because they have that anger like, 'Why me? Why do I have this particular disease and why do I need to take these pills?' " he said.
But Ngcobo has never had the luxury of choice. His HIV was passed on from his mother at birth. He says the "Why me?" question often pops up, though it is never followed by finger-pointing.
"I never had that blame feeling in my heart, no," he insisted. "Because I know that my mother wouldn't have purposely given me HIV if she knew. Not my mom. That is how she is."
LIFESAVING TREATMENT
Ngcobo's one pill taken twice a day is a far cry from the cocktail of drugs needed to combat the condition just a few years ago.
Billions of dollars in funding by the United States through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief means millions of people are now on lifesaving HIV treatment -- and that treatment continues to improve.
Ngcobo's medication is also more effective than previous tablets, which he says is important, because the stigma around HIV and AIDS still exists.
"You can't even cough without people feeling sorry for you," he said.
In Gugulethu and other communities, stigma still prevents many people from getting tested or disclosing their HIV status.
That stigma is one reason why many young people keep their status hidden and why many more refuse to even get tested.
Ngcobo says he doesn't know how many people in this tightly populated township are living with HIV or are on courses of treatment like his.
But the government estimates that more than 3 million South Africans are on antiretrovirals: the highest figure in the world and a tremendous public health burden for this developing nation.
The children with a built-in defense against AIDS
'People are still dying'
No generation suffers from the effects of the disease more than Ngcobo's, but prevention and treatment, especially among teenagers, goes only so far.
"For me, it seems incredible that anyone could still die of AIDS," said Linda-Gail Bekker, who runs the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation's Emavundleni Research Centre. "And people are still dying. I see it in my daily practice, particularly young people."
Linda-Gail Bekker calls an HIV vaccine the holy grail of epidemic control. "We can collectively write the last chapters of HIV."
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