Today, Keya and I observed in an HIV clinic at Heideveld. We shadowed Dr. Lee who was originally from Australia. He was very nice. He told us a lot about HIV treatment in South Africa. According to Dr. Lee, the government had certain criteria for free ARV treatment for HIV positive patients. (ARV stands for antiretroviral drugs) The cutoff for ARV treatment at Heideveld was a cd4 of 350. Dr. Lee explained that cd4 was a measure of immune system strength; a lower number meant a weaker immune system. Most patients that came to the clinic were between 200 to 350 in terms of their cd4. HIV patients under 200 were at a considerable risk of infection. HIV was generally classified into 4 stages. The fourth stage—aids—was the worst. The progression from stage 1 HIV to aids took around 10 years, but it could be significantly slowed by ARV treatment.
One of the biggest challenges with ARV treatment is that a lot of the patients skip their doses. Skipping doses is very detrimental to the treatment process. The doses have to be taken at the same time every night before bedtime. In order to make sure that the patients were taking their medication, Dr. Lee asked his patients to bring in their tablets to every session so that he could count them. We were impressed at the level of determination and care that Dr. Lee had for his patients.
There was one patient who was especially memorable. He was a teenager. He came into the clinic complaining about chest pains and constant coughing. The most astonishing fact was that his cd4 was 4, which meant that he was at a high risk for infection. Dr. Lee immediately sent him to the emergency room and arranged for an ambulance to take him to a bigger hospital. I hope everything went well with him today.
Next, we were introduced to the pharmacy. We were quickly put to work. For the next 2 hours we packaged 28 pills of chlorpheniramine. Although this might seem a little dull, the time passed relatively quickly, because we were entertained by the pharmacists singing along to the radio. (My favorite was when one of the pharmacists sang Mariah Carey’s “We belong together.” She was really belting out the song by the end.)
For dinner, the group went over to Beth Uriel, which was a home for young men from 18 to 24 years of age. Since most care facilities only housed children up to the age of 18, Beth Uriel was a place that could potentially serve as the next step in these young men’s pursuit of academics. Lindsay and Melvin were co-supervisors of Beth Uriel, and they gave us a thorough introduction and tour of the home. After we all ate together, we had a chance to get to know each other. Some of us danced; others played pool; and some of us simply enjoyed hearing these men’s stories, interests, and hobbies. We were all sad that we had to leave, but we said our ‘goodbyes’ after taking pictures and facebook friend-ing each other. That’s about it for today. I’ll make sure to upload some pictures after I get them from Gloria.
Can’t wait for Jo-burg tomorrow!
-Chun
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