WORLD AIDS DAY...DECEMBER 1ST!

Thelma, we'll call her. Dark-skinned beauty she was! Talking and laughing with a relative seated next to her. She couldn't have been more than fifteen years of age. Eyes so huge and white and so full of life I could not help but wonder what she was doing on the paediatric ward of the hospital I work in...

"Dr. Ohanusi please set Thelma's IV line. The one I did yesterday has tissued." My colleague bellowed from the other end of the ward.

I looked through her case note to be sure that was all I needed to do for her at the moment, and then I saw it. A list of her routine medications. Zidovudine! Lamivudine! Nevirapine!

!!!

All retro viral drugs usually given especially in that combination to persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)! My heart went out to her! All that beauty and bubbly personality going to waste, my "human mind" cried. And then my "Doctor mind" took over again. Even though she probably contracted the virus from her mother's womb, she's healthy looking and obviously very drug compliant at least according to her last CD4 count result in the case note, and she was on hospital admission for Myasthenia Gravis, a congenital medical condition we may talk about later...

Mrs Dike had noticed that her husband had been taken some meds for a long while now, and after she'd asked him severally what they were for he'd always maintained they were vitamin meds. Now she stared at her friend Dr. Awala in disbelief as she revealed that Efavirenz, Zidovudine and Lamivudine were drugs used to treat PLWHA! She remembered her three kids and felt even worse! However it was too late. Mrs Dike died less than six months after.

Ahanna lived in the students' hostel. He was in final year now. Only a few more weeks and he'd be a graduate! A few more weeks to persevere in his studies and make that second class upper grade his father had always desired for him. A few more weeks before he'd rest from school hassles, including the daily hassle of having to hide his HIV medication from his roommates. 

That had been the hardest part! He'd nearly been caught several times. He wanted so badly to tell them that the disvirgining ritual they planned for him during their first year had gone bad after he discovered during a routine HIV screening in the university about ten months later that he had contracted the virus. No. He sure as hell COULDNT risk them treating him as a leper even though they knew fully well that HIV isn't contracted through skin contact or sharing certain things together. Maybe one day he'd figure it all out. For now, he just could not bear to lose them too...

Different scenarios, and all true stories people! Lessons learned:

1) With HIV meds and proper care, PLWHA can live a happy and healthy life!

2)  Getting TESTED helps you know your STATUS and plan properly, than be surprised with "bad" news later.

3) Stop the STIGMA against PLWHA. They should be treated as the PEOPLE they are, not as the VIRUS they have. They need our LOVE and CARE!

4) ABSTINENCE for unmarried persons is KEY! But if you must have sex PLEASE use a CONDOM!!!!

December first of every year is #WorldAidsDay. 

Spread the WORD and not the VIRUS!

Da'alu!






Da'alu = Thank you (Nigeria's Igbo language)