Sharing Your Dreams

Each year, CDC Tanzania chooses a charity to collect clothing, school supplies, and toys for around the holiday season.

This year we chose the Dar es Salaam Pediatric HIV Clinic. The intent of the clinic when it started 6 years ago was to treat infants and children (up to the age of 14) who were born or had acquired HIV. The clinic not only provides antiretroviral medicines (ARVs) but also they treat other opportunistic infections that affect HIV patients (TB, Hepatitis, syphillis, etc..)

Quickly, they realized that if you did not offer the same services to the mothers, the mothers were not very consistent about bringing their children in for treatment. Most of these mothers obtained HIV either through their husbands infidelity or through prostitution on the side as means of supplementing their family's income in order to insure that the family has enough food or has enough money to pay school tuition. Not to digress, but I've been told that the average amount that a prostitute charges is roughly equivalent of $14. It is not uncommon to see 50-60 year old western men walking sitting in bars with 20 year old Tanzanians. But I digress....
In Tanzania, we predict that about 66,000 women will be pregnant and have HIV this year. Through the PEPFAR programs with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health (MOH) we hope to identify all of these women through testing in their pregnancy and give the needed ARV medicines to them to prevent the transmission of HIV to their unborn babies. The challenge is that most women are torn between being tested and identified with HIV or keeping it unknown. If they are identified, they can get treatment for themselves and their babies but they also risk their husbands leaving them. Thus, this pediatric clinic was established in a busy section of town but strategically hidden behind a crowded area so that women can come freely but out of the public eye.

The hard part for me with this visit was seeing all of these children who were confirmed HIV positive sitting along with their HIV positive mothers waiting for their checkups and treatment. The bright side of it is that all of these children are getting treatment through the love and dedication of their mothers who want the best for them and also the clinic workers who treat these families at the rate of 600 monthly. With proper treatment, children in Tanzanian are experiencing upwards of 30 years of life now when as of 10 years ago, they usually died before the age of 5.
With the increased lifespan, this clinic has created a second clinic for youth over the age of 14. These youth come on Saturdays to continue their treatment. This is important as new research shows that folks on ARV medicines early, have lower viral loads and are less infectious for transmission of the virus to others.

Here are the CDC women (3), clinic directors (2), mothers and a few children.
Violaa, Sajida, Janet from CDC and clinic director (in black).

Poster in kiswahili promoting the benefits of breastfeeding.

Playroom for the kids. Board in the left says in Kiswahili, "when I grow up, my dreams are..." and on the right it says, "when I grow up, I want to be..."
Finally, walking out toward the street after treatment and receiving medicines.


Mungu akubariki.