So today I had to visit Mbagathi District Hospital.
My business took me past the male ward, which even in the morning cold had all its windows wide open.
You see, Mbagathi was initially designed as the Infectitious Diseases Hospital (IDH), which basically means that where TB is treated. The windows have to stay open to minimise the risk to health workers and re-infection.
Now if you don’t know, 70 per cent of those infected with TB in the Kenyan setting are ALSO HIV-positive.
So passing the male ward with its windows wide open, I was shocked to see sights which I last saw in the early 1990s in KNH - skeletal bodies that were barely alive, trying to breath as froth came out of their mouths. Because of the cold, they were shaking like crazy I guess because the hospital can’t afford heaters, and if they can, it would still be too expensive to run them (remember the windows have to stay open).
It is a sight that really tore at my heart. Because in advances in HAART, what I saw is not very common in high-end hospitals, and I guess that patients I saw are from what we call vitongoji za mji. Poor guys.
Still, it got me thinking. Please use that condom - and spare a prayer for those of our brothers and sisters suffering from the pain of disease. Nobody deserves such pain.
at our ocha shopping center there is one lady that walks around with her ARVs and she is also a prostitute; she hangs out at Keg joints and everyone knows anayo but every once in a while you see a veteran drunk going with her to some mabati rooms for romps, there is only so much a third party can do, sometimes it may boil down to personal decisions
Although there’s also the possibility that the guys were put on an unworking first line regime and then left to their devices.
The cost of treatment rises as you go to second line and salvage, and to discover whether the firstline is working involves a lot of bloodwork - which am not sure is done very well in public facilities outside Kemri.
So you cant blame them all ati they were not taking their meds.
Very True. I cannot put all of them under one category but my unscientific research shows that wengi wao ni watu wamekataa kumeza dawa. TB tx ni ile ile private ama public. HAART ndio tofauti. Private tunaanza 2nd line kina Atozor-R na Truvada ($$$$$$$$), public tunaanza na first line zingine wasiwasi sana (who monitors CCC anyway???). But still you will find some tumzee private tumekataa kumeza dawa na tuko kama hao wa Mbagathi kwanza West Africans and guys from io region around DRC chungana nao sana.
Ps Wanaume tukijiaminia Dry fry, kwanza fikisha miaka ya kukufa na uwe na pesa ya kutosha.
First line regimens have been standardized by NASCOP via the national guidelines (rapid advice). Saa hii first line ya watoi ni ABC + 3TC + LPV/[FONT=Times New Roman]r[/FONT] na ya watu wazima ni TDF + 3TC + EFV.
I met some of the Vijanas in Thika and some of them are very thankful of the move;wanasema walilalamika siku za kwanza but they are now seeing the benefits