By Daran Rehmeyer | Executive Director
Accessing medical care here in Shewula can be a challenge. Isolated by distance, mountains, poverty and poor roads can mean there is little opportunity to go to a clinic. Last week Kudvumisa Foundation brought a team of doctors, nurses and a dentist to this remote area. Several thousand were seen by the medical staff. Many who came with abscesses and diseased teeth had never seen a dentist before in their life.
HIV
Swaziland still has the highest per capita prevalence rate of HIV in the world. Hundreds tested for the first time. Twelve tested positive and were immediately offered access to the drugs, which would save their lives and reduce the number of new infections.
A twelve-year-old girl in one of the nearby high schools came to the weeklong outreach and tested for HIV with the Kudvumisa staff. She tested positive. Kudvumisa nurses and counselors worked with the young girl to help her through the process of beginning on ARVs and also to see if there was anyone at her homestead she could confide in. While a 12 year old can test without parental consent, it would be difficult for a 12 year old to be responsible to take the drugs as required without help at home.
The young girl agreed and brought the nurse and counselors to her homestead. Meeting with the girl’s mother, the nurse found that everyone at the homestead was already on ARVs! So with support available at home, the girl could start on ARVs immediately.
The drugs will ensure she will not advance to AIDS and will not pass the virus to someone else; she will be able to grow as a normal teen ager here and hopefully mature and grow and fulfill her dreams.
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