Adolescent HIV Clinic

Good nite Bloggers

Today I spent my time in Adolescent HIV clinic.......It was very interesting and very informative and stirred a lot of feelings inside me.

When a HIV diagnosed mother gives birth to a neonate, there is a care bundle that is put in place to try and prevent mother to child transmission of HIV.....Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) :- follow up care of HIV exposed infants!!

• All HIV-exposed infants receive standard doses of Zidovudine and Nevirapine z,ov 4mg/kg (0.4ml/kg) P.O every 12 hours for 4 weeks and a single dose of 2mg/kg of Nevirapine suspension immediately at birth
• All Infants will have a blood test at 6 weeks and 3 months for PCR testing to determine HIV status.
• All infants that have a positive PCR at 3 months, are referred for a viral load test, they should also have an ELISA (HIV Antibody) test at 18months.
• HIV exposed infants with 2 negative HIV tests can be considered HIV negative....however the child will have a ELISA test at 18 months to confirm the negative status.

The patients that were seen today were aged between 5 and 16, and all had received HIV from birth. I was with my mentor for the day who asked each patient individually if they minded me sitting in on their conversations.....all replied yes. The major issues that stood out to me was the fact that a few of the children that had arrived for their appointment were from care homes......where their family had disowned them, or a relative i.e mother had died......even though they appeared to be normal children with their future a head of them....deep down I felt that....a few of them had grown up way too quick.....like their child hood had been ripped from them. I came across one 16year old girl....who came by herself...with no family support....she looked about 9 years old....and it was apparent to see that her nutritional health was under question as she was very thin to look at and very frail in being. I was left in a room with her for a couple of minutes....and I tried to make conversation with her......she completely zoned me out of her interaction and lay her head on the table with her eyes closed until my mentor returned. I felt it for her.....it appeared that she was so hurt by the world that she did not want to let any one in anymore. She had no next of kin and ate food when she could which was not frequent.

The check ups were every 3-4months for patients to check how they were coping with medication...to check their weight and viral load. There is counseling put in place for advice on sexual intercourse, relationships...the patients understanding of the disease they have and general discloser of whatever the patient feels to disclose.

When the senior Nurse addressed the adolescents...she spoke to them on a level.....and involved them in conversations and asked them the questions as well as the family member that might of arrived with them. Today was an eye opener to the realisation of diversity in health, and how much we take for granted.....

Blog later

Miss P xx