Give a future for 950 Indian kids living with HIV

                               Chelladurai looking really well

12 year old Chelladurai is taking tablets for HIV. He was 5 when his parents died and he now lives with his widowed grandmother. Six months ago, he was also diagnosed with tuberculosis and his granny just couldn’t cope. Our volunteer told Alagammal, the President of the district positive women’s network, and she took charge: "I shall take care of his treatment". With her support, and excellent treatment at the government hospital, Chelladurai now looks really well and is back at school.

         How you are helping HIV Positive children - July to September 2022

Currently we are following up 545 children below eighteen years of age; eleven are new cases. We make extra visits to 15 who are on second line treatment because the original treatment is no longer working. It is essential that these children take these tablets without missing even a day.

Of the 39 children who had recently stopped attending the government clinic or were irregular, we were able to persuade 36 of them to re-start their treatment. There are always some children in the ‘missed dose’ category: this has been reduced to 15. There are 28 children who are either refusing treatment outright (mostly boys) or cannot be found – three adolescent boys were recently convinced to re-start their treatment.

Some guardians do not discuss their ward’s HIV status with them adequately: some even tell them that they are taking treatment for some other medical condition. Nearly 60 of these guardians attended a status disclosure training: 16 are now discussing HIV issues openly with their wards. We counselled 37 young adults who are planning to get married. Six, who were being pressured to marry by their guardians, said that they wanted to remain single. We recommend that these young people marry whoever they like so long as they continue regular treatment and disclose their HIV status to their prospective spouse. As in the past, most prefer to find and marry another HIV positive person. Informally, government staff and our volunteers make introductions to facilitate this.

Government hospital policy on testing has changed and most routine tests are no longer required. The doctors sent 131 children for CD4 test (the less sensitive one) on the basis of their health condition and 31 were referred for the more sensitive viral load test. 87 children were treated for opportunistic infections including 29 for fever, 15 for skin conditions, 8 for diarrhea, 6 for oral infections and 3 were diagnosed with tuberculosis co-infection and treatment started. Unfortunately, a 13 year old boy died despite best efforts.

We admitted 12 patients from other Districts and three from neighbouring States in our ward. We provide beds, food, transport and specialist treatment – mostly prescribed by the government centre. Two women admitted for palliative care died in the ward with their close relations around them. These are new services provided by your donations.

Thanks so much for your past donations. You make our work possible.

Best wishes,

John Dalton