A perception of the development of an HIV+ life in Zambia

I'm sure that regular readers of this blog are well aware by now of the fact that  I am working in Zambia as a counsellor at a hospice run by a missionary order of nuns.
The hospice in-patient unit is temporarily closed due to financial constraints so the work is running clinics for TB patients and those who are HIV+ and making home visits into the community, especially the poorer compounds, taking food to help those in need if the hospice has received donations from charitable companies and individuals.

I am frequently struck by the comparison between the way these people are now able to live compared with their fate in 2002, when I left Zambia. 

Now, able to freely access the ARV (anti retro viral) drugs they need to live with their 'status', a typical HIV infected adult is likely to be at work (if they are lucky enough to find a job in this area and time of high unemployment), working on their allotments to provide food for their family or at home, or giving voluntary assistance to neighbour and family members who are sick or in difficulties.
HIV+ children growing up with the prospect of taking ARVs for the rest of their lives, seem to be developing well and doing well at school and college. Now adults can mostly look after their own children, a task which used to fall to the Ambuyes (grandparents) who, their own child-rearing days behind them, had to cope with a whole new generation of kids. 

A much more cheerful picture than the one I left in 2002 to go back to England to be with my parents; when the best and only care on offer to those infected was fellowship, love and prayer, with a blanket, water and aspirin.  In those dark days, many people were banished from their homes and villages as others were afraid of catching the virus by sharing a house with the positive ones. 

So the pattern of care has changed from one which was basically palliative to one which supports the efforts of this increasingly large group of people to live a 'positive lifestyle', adhering carefully to the drug regime, taking as good care of themselves they can with a healthy diet, rest, relaxation and condom use for sexual intercourse even for a married couple who are both positive, to avoid re-infecting each other with a constantly evolving virus, slightly different in each re-infection.

And where next?  With good management of the disease, people's life expectancy should not be effectively shortened by their HIV status; more and better strains of ARV drugs may become available (at the moment there are only 2 'lines' of drugs available so anyone unable to take some for any reason or reneging on their drug regime, can rapidly run out of options)

Fellowship, love and prayer, of course, never go out of fashion; these continue to be an important part of the mix of help available, much of which comes through the churches (CHAZ, the churches health association of Zambia, is a big player in the field of the prevention and mitigation of HIV and Aids in Zambia.

Praise God