I went into hospital today wanting to learn more about HIV given that I have met so many patients on the General medicine ward who have the virus. I went the the HIV clinic and was talked through the diagnosis and management of HIV at Coast Province General Hospital. The staff use a sensitive test to screen for HIV and a specific test to confirm the positive result. Both tests involve a reagent strip on which a drop of capillary blood from the patients finger is placed.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) funds a lot of the resources for managing HIV including anti-retroviral medicines (lamivudine and zidovudine are the first choice medicines). The clinic also distributes condoms to it's patients and encourages contact tracing (testing those who have had sexual contact with an person with HIV). The hospital monitors the CD4 count of it's HIV patients and again this is funded by the WHO. There is much stigma and fear attached to being seropositive for HIV. I was informed by the doctor that a child who is HIV positive from birth (having picked up the virus from the mother) can be expected to live into his or her twenties. The burden of HIV is immense here and the staff in the hospital do a great job in their clinics in helping patients with HIV live as long and healthy a life as possible.
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