Face HIV with Dr. Watiti

Dear Doctor,
My one-year-old child was born with HIV. What are her chances of survival? If we feed her on a balanced diet, will she live to celebrate her 25th birthday without being put on ARVs? I am on ARVs and cannot imagine my child taking the drugs for life.
Cathy

Dear Cathy,
A child living with HIV has every chance to grow into adult life if care, support and treatment are instituted early enough before HIV affects his or her immune system and growth irreversibly.

That is why we advise all mothers who are HIV-positive to test their babies early for HIV, so that if they are positive they are helped in time.

Nutrition, though very important in caring for people living with HIV, is not a substitute for treatment with ARVs. All children who test positive using the PCR method in infancy should be put on ARVs because they do better than their counterparts who start treatment later when they start falling sick.

ARVs, when taken according to instructions, with good monitoring, are not a problem and a child can learn to take them and live good quality life for a long time.

However, prevention is better than cure. Parents should do everything possible to prevent producing children with HIV or infecting them with the virus during breastfeeding.