There's been a lot of news recently....Michelle Obama visited the Baylor Botswana Clinic as part of her journey to southern Africa (Washington Post, June 24 ). There's been some great posts by NYT columnist Nicholas Kristof (NYT, June 23 and 26) regarding the importance of breastmilk and the struggles with food insecurity. But nothing hit so close to home as the headlines here in the Swazi Times, which were picked up by the AP, stating that the country has only a 2 month supply of ARVs (anti-retrovirals) left in the country. Which means....what will happen to the more than 50,000 people in Swaziland who need these medicines to live? Treatment interruption on ARVs can be just as dangerous as not ever having started the medicines. Is all the work here for nothing? I know the powers that be (multiple NGOs, governments and funders) are working on solving this problem. And you all should know by now that the Swazi Times is not always on top of all its news stories. But, in the meantime I have to stare my patients in the eyes and tell them, "I hope there will be more medicine for you when you return in two months. I hope you will still have a chance at living."
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