Florence Okun has been living with HIV since 2001. She however, started receiving treatment three years later after coming to Kampala. At Alive Medical Services in the outskirts of Kampala was where Okun found it reliable for her regimen. Okun told NTV that living with HIV an incurable illness was traumatizing. however, acceptance was the first step to heal. “The best thing people should know is to be open to your doctors and you follow strictly what they tell you to do, you will live.” Said, Florence Okun – Person Living with HIV.
In Uganda, the first cases of HIV & AIDS were recorded in Rakai district in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, Uganda had one of the high HIV prevalence rates. But a robust government campaign promoting a three-prolonged AIDS prevention message Abstinence from sexual activity until marriage, monogamy or faithfulness within marriage, and the use of condoms as the last resort made gains against the scourge. Anti- Retroviral drugs for treatment came at a later stage in the 1990s. Florence Okun had been on ARV treatment for 14 years now. “At the beginning, the drugs were really so strong in the body, I, in fact, don’t know why?” This was due to the ingredients used to manufacture the drugs at the time. The revised guidelines in the National Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Care Report of 2008 showed that those particular drugs were preferred due to cost and availability. “The drugs nowadays are not as bad as in the beginning.” “With the advancement that has happened, we are seeing people with better adherence because of reduction in the pill burden but also reduction in the side effects.” Said, Dr. Elizabeth Khika – Clinic Manager, Alive Medical Services. And this was because Tenofovir containing regiments had been included as alternative first-line therapy because of a lot of CCT profile.
Each year that went by new guidelines for treatment and management of HIV & AIDS were developed due to improvements in the drugs. “From the days we had a burden of pills, now we have reduced it, we are now having like one pill a day. From the time when we had to wait for the person’s immunity to go down to below 200 for them for someone to start on Antiretroviral medication, a lot of advances have happened such that now we are having what we call test and treat. In other words, all those who are testing positive right now, they are started on treatment immediately. What that means is that there is a reduction in the number of people presenting with what we call stage four events if they start on treatment. In other words, those who are bedridden, those whose prognosis is poor.” Said, Dr. Elizabeth Khika – Clinic Manager, Alive Medical Services.
However, one of the emerging challenges globally was the drug-resistant HIV strength. “There are instances whereby the virus develops what we call mutations that give it an ability to not to respond to the treatment. So as per our guidelines, what happens is; when we find that the viral load is high in the first instance, the person undergoes what we call intensive adherence counseling. If at the viral load is high and through the sessions, we have discovered that this person has been actually adherent to their medication, that’s when we get to switch them from one line of treatment to the other. In treatment and care, so far we have three lines of treatment what you have had like the first line, second line, and third line. The first line is the medication the person starts off with when they are starting treatment, the second line is when the person has failed on the first line and has to go to another set of medication which we would refer to as the second line. And then, if they fail on the second line, that’s when we have what we call the third line. The third line is not yet widely distributed because it is still expensive and the drugs are still a bit scarce.” Said, Dr. Elizabeth Khika – Clinic Manager, Alive Medical Services.
