My HIV positive nephew needs advice
Nov 04, 2007
IT is good that your nephew is doing well on ARVs because most of our children with HIV are not under this kind of care and so are not able to enjoy a good quality of life like your nephew.
Dear doctor, my nephew whom I look after has HIV and is doing well on ARVs. He is now nineteen and I am worried because like other teenagers, he has started associating with the opposite sex. What advice should I give him, knowing he has HIV and can infect others?
Helen
Dear Helen,
IT is good that your nephew is doing well
on ARVs because most of our children with HIV are not under this kind of care and so are not able to enjoy a good quality of life like your nephew.
With good care, children with HIV can develop normally as long as we do not allow the disease to cause them to be stunted especially in infancy by taking them for treatment when it is too late.
Your nephew needs counselling through which he will be given information about reproductive health, using youth friendly approaches.
This means talking about the dangers of premarital sex such as causing unwanted pregnancies and getting infected with sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. He needs to be introduced to the role of positive people in HIV prevention known as “Positive preventionâ€.
This aims at increasing the self-esteem, confidence and ability of HIV positive people to protect their own health and to avoid passing on the infection to others. He should not imagine that the worst has already happened.
It is possible for him to be infected with a different and possibly more virulent strain of the HIV virus, thus making his condition worse.
Lastly, encourage him to join a peer support group of other teenagers who have HIV/AIDS. This will help him to grow, knowing he is not alone and inform him about how to live a healthy lifestyle.
Send your question on
HIV to Health Editor,
The New Vision. P. O. Box 9815, Kampala or
health&beauty@newvision.co.ug
Helen
Dear Helen,
IT is good that your nephew is doing well
on ARVs because most of our children with HIV are not under this kind of care and so are not able to enjoy a good quality of life like your nephew.
With good care, children with HIV can develop normally as long as we do not allow the disease to cause them to be stunted especially in infancy by taking them for treatment when it is too late.
Your nephew needs counselling through which he will be given information about reproductive health, using youth friendly approaches.
This means talking about the dangers of premarital sex such as causing unwanted pregnancies and getting infected with sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS. He needs to be introduced to the role of positive people in HIV prevention known as “Positive preventionâ€.
This aims at increasing the self-esteem, confidence and ability of HIV positive people to protect their own health and to avoid passing on the infection to others. He should not imagine that the worst has already happened.
It is possible for him to be infected with a different and possibly more virulent strain of the HIV virus, thus making his condition worse.
Lastly, encourage him to join a peer support group of other teenagers who have HIV/AIDS. This will help him to grow, knowing he is not alone and inform him about how to live a healthy lifestyle.
Send your question on
HIV to Health Editor,
The New Vision. P. O. Box 9815, Kampala or
health&beauty@newvision.co.ug