More experiences from the HIV clinic....

A few of the countries surrounding Zambia and their HIV rate

The topic of HIV is continually on my mind. After traveling to another HIV ravaged country, Malawi, it just makes me realize how big the problem of HIV is all over Sub-Saharan Africa. The life expectancy of a Zambina is 39 years, there are many reasons why this number is so low…and one of them is HIV. It is interesting to note that you really don’t see much of it if you were just a tourist traveling through sub-saharan. It is once you start integrating yourself into the culture and seeing the everyday reality of a Zambian, does the shock of the reality of HIV really hit. The Zambians go to funerals ALL the time here. We always see groups of vehicles around town carrying friends and families to funerals. At night as I am going to sleep, I can hear the people living around us singing funeral songs and wailing. This has truly been a wake-up call for me.
This ‘wakeup call’ has just driven me to continue working at the HIV clinic. There is so much to know about HIV care, it is so complex! I have taken my usual attitude of just throwing myself into the madness at the clinic and asking as many questions as possible...so I can learn as much as possible about HIV care. And I am telling you that once the clinic opens its doors on Monday morning….it is overwhelmed with people each and every day. It is truly organized chaos in there, and so full of people that there is no room to even move. The clinic is constantly overcapacity, and just further emphasizes the epidemic this country is facing.

I often see babies such as this HIV positive baby...

I have had a many memorable moments and then again some really sad ones too. Today I was looking at the lab results for one of my patients. They use what is called a CD4 count to monitor the level of HIV in the blood, and to see if the HIV medication is working properly. I could tell she was nervous about the results, and wondering if her CD4 count had increased. (The CD4 count should be increasing once a patient is started on medication) So I looked at the results, and told her that they had increased. She was so happy that she gave me the biggest hug right in front of the whole clinic. These are the moments that I enjoy most.
There have been many heartbreaking moments as well. Today I had to tell someone they were HIV positive for the first time. It is very much like delivering someone the news that they have cancer. Except here we know without a doubt that this disease will kill them, and much sooner than if they lived in Canada. It is so unfair. I looked at the test results and said to her, ‘you are positive’. Those few words just completely changed the course of her life. I saw it in her eyes..and it was a look I will never forget.
I will also never forget having a mom and young son come in who where both HIV positive. The mother had been non-compliant with her medication for various reasons. After three months of being non-compliant with HIV medications, patients have to be completely taken off the medication and are not allowed to return back to taking them. This is not to be cruel, but it is actually because the HIV virus has already had a chance to mutate and now the medications will no longer be effective in stopping the HIV virus from multiplying in their body. If someone stops taking their medications properly they are ‘just putting another nail in their coffin’ as a nurse at the clinic so bluntly put it. This situation occurred with the mother and son. Because the mother had not been taking her medications properly, she was not given anymore meds. Unfortunately so was her young son because she had not been giving him his medications properly. The nurses told me he had only been off his medications for one month, and they could already tell he was deteriorating. To me he looked so sick, and it was heartbreaking knowing that his quality of life could be improved with just these simple meds, but it was too late. So unfair that he really had no choice in the matter. It was hard for me to watch as a bystander, and not be able to jump in there and fix things…like I am so used to doing as a nurse!

Prevention messages like this can be seen all over Zambia

At times it is hard not to be overwhelmed by this disease. I always knew that HIV was a problem in the world, but to be honest it was never truly until nursing in Zambia that I realized…they aren’t lying when they say that millions of people are dying of AIDS in this world. I am embarrassed to admit it, but I don’t think I truly grasped the reality of HIV until it was staring me in the face. It was when I started physically touching these patients and caring for them that it hit me. Now it is my job to make everyone in the world gets it like I just got it.
Anyone want to help?

Jessica