Need for Treatment Education for People living with HIV/AIDS

[Guest guest]

Need for Treatment Education for People living with HIV/AIDS

People living with HIV/AIDS has equal right to treatment and with the right to

treatment , comes the right to treatment education. But are the people living

with HIV getting enough information with a HIV positive test result?

Majority of the people living with HIV have no access to internet. This means,

even if we have loads of information on the net, it will not be reached to the

needy who have no access to internet. Then comes those who do not know English.

Most of the information is in English and is not translated into local language.

We need to reach out to all including those who cannot read and write.

There are a lot of Government VCTC setups, but still complete information is not

in place about life after HIV. Many people prefer to have a HIV test done in

private labs to ensure confidentiality and privacy. They get their test done

with out pre and post test counseling and without information.

Many people are already on ARV, without any information on how long they will

have to take and how ARV works. Some Doctors still prescribe ARV drugs

without having much information about the same to themselves. If Doctors

themselves do not have enough information on ARV, how could they give to their

patients? If Counselors themselves do not have enough information on ARV, how

can they be ARV counselors and provide information to their clients?

Every person living with HIV should have enough information to live with HIV.

One need to know what HIV does into our lives, how to live healthy even after

having HIV, what is the life span and how to extent life, food intake one need

to have, what are the components of healthy living, What are Opportunistic

Infections? what ARV is, and what treatments are available? When to start

treatment? What about side effects? What one need to know before taking ARV and

what adherence mean and what other information do I need for living with HIV?

Being HIV positive mean a lot.

When someone receives an HIV positive test result, there should be provision of

all such information. All the drop in centres, testing labs, VCTC Centres

should have access to information for people with HIV in their simple local

language. There should be active helplines set up in all corners to reach as

many people. We should not limit this information with Doctors only. It is our

lives and we have to live with it for life. We cannot be Doctors, we understand

that, but we can at least receive information and train ourselves in HIV self

management. Not everytime we need to see a Doctor, if we know to manage simple

living.

Whose responsibility it is any way? There are a lot of questions coming to my

mind.

Can we blame Doctors for not getting information or for keeping information to

themselves, or for not having time? Or Government for not been able to give

access? Can we blame the people who are working in the field for not been able

to reach their target? Or could we blame people living with HIV/AIDS for not

been able to receive information?

It is every ones responsibility. We cannot blame anyone for this as we together

can make a difference.

Project Concern International/India

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New Delhi - 110 024

Mobile: 9868745925

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