Youths born with HIV face challenges accessing ART - Namuchana
YOUTHS born with HIV and AIDS tend to hate their parents if they learn of their health status later in life, says Namuchana Mushabati.
But Ronnie Jere, a programme officer at Livingstone's Contact Youth Trust Association (CYTA), says there is a good window of hope to get a lot of youths live free of HIV.
At a community interactive workshop dubbed 'Community Dialogue Agenda' in Livingstone last Saturday, Mushabati who is Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) programmes officer says children born with HIV should be informed of their status much earlier in life for them to grow up knowing how to handle the situation.
"Youths born with HIV have stated that some parents have not told their children at an early point that they were taking ARVs for them to understand HIV. They say parents or guardians tend to wait until they grew up and probably learn from their friends who may have identified that the drug they are taking was actually ARVs," Mushabati says. "So most of them feel parents are being unfair by not disclosing to them their status or not explaining to them on the issue of being born HIV positive and some of them actually tend to hate their parents because they feel, parents should have explained to them about their status so that they know how to handle it."
Mushabati says the practise of youths living with HIV/AIDS accessing anti-retroviral drugs together with adults affects their adherence to treatment.
"This is due to shame. A number of young people have complained about accessing ARVs together with adults. They fear that people will start asking questions as to how they got HIV, when she or he is young. There is a perception that HIV can only be contracted by elderly people because it is said that only married people or adults should have sex, so they think that people will start thinking, how did she or he get HIV? They feel that adults will take them to have been naughty, sleeping around and that is how she or he got HIV," she says.
Mushabati says youths feel that ARVs in hospitals should be issued at the general pharmacy windows instead of creating separate ART access points.
She said accessing the life-saving drugs from isolated areas of the health centres and hospitals' main pharmacy makes it difficult for youths to access the drugs.
"Young people have suggested that ARVs should be administered in the same way people accessed drugs from a pharmacist at a hospital, the same pharmacy that administers any other medicine for other diseases should also administer ARVs than just saying ARVs will be accessed from ART section. This leads to stigmatisation, not stigmatisation from other people, but self-stigmatisation because they will be like, 'what will people think of me when I get seen to be in a place where people access ARVs'," Mushabati says.
Mushabati said SAfAIDS targets to reach youths between the ages of eight and 18 in schools with the aim of addressing the root cause of HIV among young people.
Mushabati says SAfAIDS had noted that a lot of young people were vulnerable in a number of ways with regards to their sexual reproductive health and HIV.
"We have seen that young people are being affected or infected with HIV because they are sexually active or they are sexually abused. So we are looking around those areas to see how to address the root causes to HIV amongst young people," she says.
She says SAfAIDS was implementing the 'Community Dialogue Agenda' in six districts namely Lusaka, Chongwe, Kitwe, Kabwe, Mazabuka and Livingstone and that with funding the programme may be rolled-out to rural areas.
Mushabati says SAfAIDS had noted that there was no dialogue between young people and parents with regards to sex and HIV.
"Young people are not being guided on sex, HIV and they are getting information from the Internet and from their peers and some of it is positive and some of it is negative and they act on it whether it is negative or positive. That is why we are seeing issues of early pregnancies, issues of young people getting HIV or STI," she continues.
She said the issue of early marriages was due to the fact that there was no information flowing among the young people.
Mushabati adds that this has resulted in unsafe abortions, youths being abused and some dropping out of school.
And Jere says youths similarly were not opening up to their parents and teachers on issues of HIV/AIDS.
"If we are to keep with those that are not yet infected and continue to educate them to avoid getting infected, I can see an HIV-free youth generation," Jere says.
He says the SAfAIDS 'Community Dialogue Agenda' was ideal in helping youths look at new dimensions of HIV and how to reduce new infections.
"They are free to talk only to their peers and not parents. We hope this will help get youths to discuss issues among themselves so that the youth leaders can then forward the information to adults such as parents and teachers," Jere says.
He, however, said young people were more interested to discuss issues of sex and require stimulation from youth groups to get them to mull over sex in the context of HIV.
But Ronnie Jere, a programme officer at Livingstone's Contact Youth Trust Association (CYTA), says there is a good window of hope to get a lot of youths live free of HIV.
At a community interactive workshop dubbed 'Community Dialogue Agenda' in Livingstone last Saturday, Mushabati who is Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) programmes officer says children born with HIV should be informed of their status much earlier in life for them to grow up knowing how to handle the situation.
"Youths born with HIV have stated that some parents have not told their children at an early point that they were taking ARVs for them to understand HIV. They say parents or guardians tend to wait until they grew up and probably learn from their friends who may have identified that the drug they are taking was actually ARVs," Mushabati says. "So most of them feel parents are being unfair by not disclosing to them their status or not explaining to them on the issue of being born HIV positive and some of them actually tend to hate their parents because they feel, parents should have explained to them about their status so that they know how to handle it."
Mushabati says the practise of youths living with HIV/AIDS accessing anti-retroviral drugs together with adults affects their adherence to treatment.
"This is due to shame. A number of young people have complained about accessing ARVs together with adults. They fear that people will start asking questions as to how they got HIV, when she or he is young. There is a perception that HIV can only be contracted by elderly people because it is said that only married people or adults should have sex, so they think that people will start thinking, how did she or he get HIV? They feel that adults will take them to have been naughty, sleeping around and that is how she or he got HIV," she says.
Mushabati says youths feel that ARVs in hospitals should be issued at the general pharmacy windows instead of creating separate ART access points.
She said accessing the life-saving drugs from isolated areas of the health centres and hospitals' main pharmacy makes it difficult for youths to access the drugs.
"Young people have suggested that ARVs should be administered in the same way people accessed drugs from a pharmacist at a hospital, the same pharmacy that administers any other medicine for other diseases should also administer ARVs than just saying ARVs will be accessed from ART section. This leads to stigmatisation, not stigmatisation from other people, but self-stigmatisation because they will be like, 'what will people think of me when I get seen to be in a place where people access ARVs'," Mushabati says.
Mushabati said SAfAIDS targets to reach youths between the ages of eight and 18 in schools with the aim of addressing the root cause of HIV among young people.
Mushabati says SAfAIDS had noted that a lot of young people were vulnerable in a number of ways with regards to their sexual reproductive health and HIV.
"We have seen that young people are being affected or infected with HIV because they are sexually active or they are sexually abused. So we are looking around those areas to see how to address the root causes to HIV amongst young people," she says.
She says SAfAIDS was implementing the 'Community Dialogue Agenda' in six districts namely Lusaka, Chongwe, Kitwe, Kabwe, Mazabuka and Livingstone and that with funding the programme may be rolled-out to rural areas.
Mushabati says SAfAIDS had noted that there was no dialogue between young people and parents with regards to sex and HIV.
"Young people are not being guided on sex, HIV and they are getting information from the Internet and from their peers and some of it is positive and some of it is negative and they act on it whether it is negative or positive. That is why we are seeing issues of early pregnancies, issues of young people getting HIV or STI," she continues.
She said the issue of early marriages was due to the fact that there was no information flowing among the young people.
Mushabati adds that this has resulted in unsafe abortions, youths being abused and some dropping out of school.
And Jere says youths similarly were not opening up to their parents and teachers on issues of HIV/AIDS.
"If we are to keep with those that are not yet infected and continue to educate them to avoid getting infected, I can see an HIV-free youth generation," Jere says.
He says the SAfAIDS 'Community Dialogue Agenda' was ideal in helping youths look at new dimensions of HIV and how to reduce new infections.
"They are free to talk only to their peers and not parents. We hope this will help get youths to discuss issues among themselves so that the youth leaders can then forward the information to adults such as parents and teachers," Jere says.
He, however, said young people were more interested to discuss issues of sex and require stimulation from youth groups to get them to mull over sex in the context of HIV.