Just another day....

Last week I spent a day in a very rural clinic in Northern Swaziland. Our clinic has combined forces with ICAP, another NGO sponsored by Columbia University that is also involved with AIDS care and treatment. We join their teams when mentoring rural clinics, in order to ensure that pediatric care is not overlooked. Starting anti-retroviral therapy on children in remote areas is not easy. Pediatric blood draws are challenging. Having multiple sizes and kinds of pills for children can be very confusing. And the rules for pediatric HIV care can be complicated. My job is to try to break that barrier, ensuring equal access for those of all ages in any location around the country.

I have been seeing a healthy 4 month old infant, whose mother did everything right. By that I mean, she tested during pregnancy, got onto appropriate therapy for her CD4 count, made sure the baby got appropriate prophylaxis, and still the child turned positive. He is part of the early infant diagnosis group; he is very healthy but happens to have HIV. So he needs ARVs now. I drew his blood two weeks ago, only to be disappointed that the blood hemolyzed in transport to the lab. So I drew the blood again this week. I'm hoping the next time I go, I can see his results and start him on ARVs in this rural community.

After seeing the several children as well as some sick adults, I walked outside. Much to my complete surprise, there was a cow tied to a tree. I watched as what I soon realized was a cow slaughtering, taking place on the clinic grounds. I watched the cow fall after multiple spearings, and then proceeded to watch the men completely strip the cow down to just the meat that they then hung in the tree. This meat was to be used for an HIV community testing and counseling event that was taking place at the clinic two days later. While it makes perfect sense now, seeing my first cow slaughtering on the grounds of this small remote clinic was enough to make me think.... just another day in Africa....