Wednesday, September 30, 2009

HIV, AIDS, and ARV in Africa

Last night my husband went to the Society of Malawi meeting. On this particular night there was a Malawian expert talking about HIV, AIDS, and ARV (Anti Retro Viral) drugs used to treat AIDS.

I have never known the difference between HIV and AIDS and always thought of it as one and the same. Last night the speaker clarified the difference: HIV is when the blood CD4 (proteins that make up the immune system) drop to 500 and AIDS is when CD4 drop to 200.
When a person gets HIV his CD4 just keep going down. As the sickness progresses the patient will get ailments like shingles and thrush and will experience weight loss. After the CD4 level drops all the way to 200 more serious sicknesses like TB and some forms of meningitis will occur. After that point the patient has less than a year left to live. Right now in Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, most of the beds are taken up with the AIDS patients. If a patient comes in with Malaria he or she is simply given outpatient treatment and sent home.

The very first ARV drugs could add about a year to one’s life and the patient would have to take 20 to 30 tablets daily. Later on new drugs came that reduced the amount of drugs to 3 tablets per day and eventually to 1 tablet that contained 3 different types of medicines in it. There are about 22 ARV drugs in the world. In Malawi there are 4 to 5 ARV drugs that are available to patients for free. Those drugs are donated for free by different aid organizations. Also in private clinics 4 to 5 other types of drug are available for sale. Why so many? Because AIDS has different strains and they require different drugs to combat them. There are also different levels of toxicity in the drugs and they can have different side effects. Five percent of patients taking these drugs have an adverse reaction. In Western countries these kinds of medicines will not be used but Africa will gladly take anything it can get. The Malawi government decided that it would be better for 5% of infected people to get this reaction than for 100% to have no hope at all. One common side effect is skin rash that makes patients look as if they had been burned.
The new ARVs can add decades to the patient’s life if taken properly. People do not realize that if they start on ARVs they have to take the complete course of medication at the appropriate time. AIDS can build up resistance to the drug if the treatment is interrupted or administered incorrectly. In Malawi, out of 1 million infected people only 200,000 are receiving ARVs. One of the reasons is that the supply of ARVs does not come in consistently. Sometimes when the hospitals run out there are periods of 3 to 4 months when there are no drugs available.

Another important fact is that some may test negative for HIV after a period on ARVs, but this does not always mean that the patient is cured. The virus stores itself in one’s brain, liver, or lymph nodes and can return later should the patient stop taking regular treatment.

Some of the people in the Western countries think that since ARV drugs are so available, AIDS is not such a serious threat any more. But they need to realize that AIDS is still a major killer all over the world. Right now scientists are trying to find a cure that will heal people from AIDS completely and make this pandemic history!

3 comments:

  1. Hello everyone here in this forum i am so glad that i have this great opportunity to come out here and share my testimony on how Dr Molemen was able to cure me totally from Hiv disease, i have been suffering from this Disease for approximately 4 Years now, i have tried various ways to get rid of this Virus out of my body, i have also purchase for Medical treatment from my doctor but they all failed, sometime back now while i was browsing the Internet i found some good quote concerning Dr Molemen Herbal Medicine, and how he has been using it to save souls from Different Disease including Cancer, someone also said she was been cured of Hiv from his medicine, and they gave out his contact details in case anyone needs his help, i decided to contact Dr Molemen and i told him about my Hiv illness he told me not to worry that he was going to send me his herbal medicine all i was to do is to send him my personal details and also my home address so he can post the Medicine to me, actually i did all that was required by this Man, i took the medicine just as prescribe by him, he told me to go for check up in the hospital which i did and to my great surprise my Doctor told me the Hiv Virus was no longer there, i even went to other hospital for better confirmation its was still the same thing, Today i am so happy that i am Negative again, Dr Molemen has given me reasons to share tears of Joy, you can reach to Dr Molemen on his email address at ( drmolemenspiritualtemple@gmail.com / dr.molemenspiritualtemple@yahoo.com) or call him on +2347036013351

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  2. (HOW I WAS CURED FROM HIV AID BY DOCTOR HAZIM USMAN HERBAL MEDICINE THIS REAL AND BEWARE OF SCAMMERS ONLINE PLEASE)

    It still unbelievable to believe that HIV AIDS still has cure, me and my husband has been suffering from HIV AIDS for so many years and we have search for help but we were unable to find one, i was told that there was no cure for HIV AIDS but somehow i believe that there was someone out that has a cure, so that was how i went in search for solution on how to get cured of HIV AIDS and surprisingly i saw comment on daily news papers where lady testify of how Dr Usman herbal medicine cure her, i was so confused because first i thought that there was no cure but now seeing that someone outside has a cure, i thoughts of it as a scam but something told me to give it a try and when i did he reply me and assure me that me and my husband will be cured once we receive his herbal medicine, that was how he prepared it, and send my herbal medication that me and my husband used that cure me and my husband in Just 2 weeks and we were tested HIV AIDS Negative. All Thanks to the powerful Dr Usman for his help in my life. contact him on his email usmanuwaiforabiu@gmail.com or whatsapp him on +2348154641673

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  3. Hiv disease for the last 3 years and had pain hard to eat and cough are nightmares,especially the first year At this stage, the immune system is severely weakened, and the risk of contracting opportunistic infections is much greater. However, not everyone with HIV will go on to develop AIDS. The earlier you receive treatment, the better your outcome will be.I started taking ARV to avoid early death but I had faith in God that i would be healed someday.As a Hiv patent we are advise to be taking antiretroviral treatments to reduce our chance of transmitting the virus to others , few weeks ago i came on search on the internet if i could get any information on Hiv treatment with herbal medicine, on my search i saw a testimony of someone who has been healed from Hiv her name was Achima Abelard and other Herpes Virus patent Tasha Moore also giving testimony about this same man,Called Dr Itua Herbal Center.I was moved by the testimony and i contacted him by his Email.drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com We chatted and he send me a bottle of herbal medicine I drank it as he instructed me to.After drinking it he ask me to go for a test that how i ended my suffering life of Hiv patent,I'm cured and free of Arv Pills.I'm forever grateful to him Drituaherbalcenter.Here his contact Number +2348149277967...He assure me he can cure the following disease..Hiv,Cancer,Herpes Virus,Hpv,Pile,Weak Erection,Lyme Disease,Epilepsy, ,Bladder Cancer,Colorectal Cancer,Breast Cancer,Kidney Cancer,Leukemia,Lung Cancer,Non Hodgkin Lymphoma,Skin Cancer,Lupus,Uterine Cancer,Prostate Cancer, fibromyalgia ,ALS,Hepatitis,Copd,Parkinson disease.Genetic disease,Fibrodysplasia disease,Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva,Fluoroquinolone Toxicity Syndrome,Stroke,Hpv,Weak Erection,Liver/Kidney Inflammatory,Men/Woman infertility, bowel disease ,Huntington's disease ,Diabetes,Fibroid...

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