HIV/AIDS and poverty in the Philippines, a call for help

I came upon an article that photographed the conditions and situations of the patients and how it is to be confine in a public hospital by Melchizedek Maquiso. The photographer's subject of interest were the patients of my home Treatment Hub, San Lazaro Hospital, but he was restricted to shoot in the TB Ward and Children's Wards only. I will put through text my first hand experiences, as shooting in the H4 Ward where HIV patients are confined are impossible knowing how strict the ward is when it comes to confidentiality of the patient's identity.

Being confined in a typical public hospital means one is poor or lacks the financial capabilities of being in a better health care institution , it lacks the typical comforts and luxuries of a private hospital such as air-conditioning, private comfort rooms, TV, and a nice comfortable bed. However, what lacks in comfort is what the health care workers make-up for... Being very nice. I cannot comment anything more on how nice I was treated during my time when I was confined in the hospital (H4 Ward). The nurses were fun and were very attentive to our needs. Although drugs were lacking, and patient's have to buy them outside the hospital, they do keep up with the moral support for the patients. That's the best thing I like being with San Lazaro Hospital, it is the people who takes care of us. Our doctors in the H4 ward may be just less than a handful to the number (thousands) of HIV infected patients enrolled under SLH's care, but I saw how hard working they are, also, they have been taking care of PLHIVs longer than any other institution in the country, I think (although I don't have any data to support that theory). 

When I was confined, I saw how the worst of what poverty can do and the best of human emotional endurance. Some of the relatives or the care-takers of the patients have nothing to eat at all, because only the patients have free hospital food, and because they are so poor, they do not have enough money to buy food for themselves. There are free medicines if available in the hospital pharmacy, but if none, the patients have to buy them elsewhere. There are antibiotics that costs as much as P4,000 per bottle that the HIV patients need, most of them couldn't even afford a decent meal what more a medicine with the price of a low-end cellphone. So most them tend to stay in the ward longer because of lack of money to buy the needed medicines. In public hospitals, most equipment are donated by charitable institutions or by other countries. I can proudly say that the machines that caters to HIV/AIDS health care in San Lazaro is complete as well as some of the other hospital equipment, thanks to the help of the Japanese government. The medical equipment used by the staff in the H4 ward as I have heard were donations from private people and institutions. The public hospitals mainly gets its equipment and other machinery from donations and private funding, that is what makes the public health system a little better that it seems. Also , the fees from the pay-wards help pay the bills in the public non-paying wards. The pay-wards, although I haven't seen it, has the usual air-conditioning, private comfort rooms and better beds as they say, but it costs a lot to be there than in the public non-paying wards but definitely cheaper than to be in a private hospital. 

It is heartbreaking to see a fellow patient cry for desperate help when he has no money to spend for medicines and we all know his life is already in dire danger, it is even more heartbreaking to see their relatives specially their parents cry at their bed side saying they don't have any money to buy any medicine at all. One fellow patient was the son of a food peddler, she sells food to construction sites, and along roadsides just for them to have something to eat. Seeing her go to the hospital to check on her son and looking tired after a day's work with no money for medicines and just enough for fare and for the budget on the next day's goods, is just heart wrenching. These are the people who really needs help. There are patients who were even younger, those who has not even finished college yet or just started to work. It is sad to know that their dreams to get out of poverty are cut short by the virus.

I am not against the HIV/AIDS prevention, but I think it already reached a certain popularity that most people already knows about it, and on the importance of getting tested, we cannot force the public to do what we want them to, we can only do so much. What do these institutions (NGOs) do? Make public ads, help those who needs counseling, then help people get tested and more counseling if they tested positive, what else? Does your help extend beyond the counseling up to the point wherein they need Philhealth assistance, medical assistance, food and medicines? The antibiotics prescribed for People/Person Living with HIV (PLHIV) are very expensive, just a little help will extend the lives of my fellow patients. Some patients were so poor and jobless that they themselves cannot even pay for a small fee for the Philhealth insurance, which is a major requirement for a PLHIV. My point is, why not give some funds to the needy, to the Treatment Hubs specially where the poorest of the poor are concentrated like in San Lazaro Hospital. 

The government has so many to spend upon, education, healthcare, paying the country's debts, infrastructure and so on, it is useless to call for them for help, and they already know the impoverish conditions of the public hospital patients. I am calling the attention of private citizens, those who has money to spare and NGOs to donate and help people in the public healthcare system. We are already so attached enjoying the luxuries of what our hard earned cash can give and provide us with. A little help to extend the lives of poverty stricken patients is not a lot to lose from a weekly budget that affords us an exaggeratedly priced coffee or an overpriced meal which has the price equivalent to a week's dose of a life saving antibiotic. 

In this era of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, it is not just prevention that we must face, battle, and uphold, it is the ongoing fight to live. Let us help those who are bedridden and sore, with malnourished pockets and nothing more to spare but their hope of going home alive. 

Sick

Last Tuesday morning I woke up feeling feverish. I was sneezing uncontrollably. Then at one big sneeze, blood spritzed out of my mouth, it scared the hell out of me. My fever began at 37 degrees then it was constant at that. I called up the office saying I cannot make it that day, then I sent an email to my boss saying I'm sick.

I wasn't coughing but I kept on sneezing and I felt terrible, I felt weak. the mucus whenever I blow nose had blood in it and I had tonsillitis, I had difficulty swallowing. I haven't told my dad yet until earlier through a text message, although I know my dad was already trying to call me up on my landline, I was in no mood to talk to anyone.

I was supposed to go to San Lazaro right away last Tuesday or today, but I ought to go there tomorrow. I thought of saving my strength because the commute might just drain so much of me. I haven't done any of the required bi-annual lab tests yet, but I'll have them soon. Tomorrow, I just want to have myself checked. I am thinking that I am having another bout with Pneumonia, this is how I felt with my last two attacks back in 2010 and earlier part of 2011 which was both Community Acquired Pneumonia.

Right now, I am already coughing although my throat doesn't hurt that much anymore and I don't have any fever, my body temperature's down to 36.9 degrees.

No paracetamols or any drug were used to hasten down my fever nor to address the colds and cough. No cough medicines has any effect on me anyway, paracetamols are not allowed until fever goes as high as 40 degrees. 

Normal

04-00-2010: 526

12-16-2010: 385

06-09-2011: 295

01-05-2012: 589

The numbers in blue are my CD4 count for the past two years since I was diagnosed with HIV last April of 2010. It has been on a steep decline from April to December then slowed down on June, but still it went down. A healthy and normal CD4 count is between 500 - 1500. 

It was a very long wait earlier at the hospital (San Lazaro Hospital) because I woke up late (around 5:30 AM), and I arrived there at around 8:30 AM and I was already the 62nd patient! There were such a huge number of new patients there that I barely know anyone. Good thing that some of my "batch mates" arrived a few minutes later and some a few hours later. Those batch mates of mine were diagnosed at the same year I was, we are given codes, like student numbers, which we will know what year a person was diagnosed. I very good friend of mine accompanied me to the hospital all that time which I really appreciated because he was asked if he was "one of us" too. Fortunately, he isn't. Me, my friend, and my batch mates spent time to the nearby Day Care Center inside the hospital compound where we spent hours chatting with other patients and  social workers, we had a few good laughs, which was one thing that I always look forward whenever I am going to visit the H4 Ward. The laughter, the fun, the socializing, and all that buzz and "bubbliness" of the other patients is what I always miss in H4 Ward, and what I always look forward to. Socializing amidst the stress and boredom of the long wait until our name is called for our turn to see the doctor is always a key for us not to be so crazy and dead bored inside the SLH compound. A patient can wait for the whole day if he listed his name late, like what I did earlier. There was a mass held in the H4 Ward - Clinic, yes, we now have a separate air-conditioned clinic from the ward; so everything has to be cut and stopped. The priests and very handsome seminarians from the St. Camillus Seminary came to celebrate mass. Operations in the clinic resumed at around 4:30 PM, right after the mass. My doctor told me that most of her patients today who came for their CD4 test, got an increased result. That's why despite of her tending to more than a hundred patients that day, I can see that she's happy. Most of the patients earlier came for their CD4 test results anyway, only a handful were there for a health check-up. 

I was on my way home at sundown with a smile on my face. After a very long time... I am now, walking, normally.

Thank you so much to everyone who included me in their prayers. Thank you, God.

Broken Wings

It's another Thursday for my check-up in the H4 Ward. Today, I was with Fred, an ex of mine who is also infected. Both of us arrived early knowing that it could be pretty crowded every Thursdays, however, despite of us being very early, we end up being the 13th and the 14th in the line. The morning was usual, after lining up, we went to the nearest fastfood and had breakfast then went back. Fred wasn't feeling well when we got there, his tummy has been in pain since he woke up and the medicines he had with him almost didn't help. After a few hours, my code and alias was finally called, it was my turn. The doctor checked my list of vital signs for the day which was all normal and asked a few questions regarding how I am adjusting with my new medicine. I said I am still experiencing fatigue and dizziness most of the time, but each time is becoming more tolerable. The doctor gave me a list of blood chem to do, so I'll be back there again. I forgot to check on how much medicines I have left, tsk. Better be back next Thursday to get my supply.

It was Fred's turn after me, same doctor. He was there for a check-up and to find out his CD4 result, and of course, to have his tummy checked. Patients are already pouring in the doctor's office and Fred's check-up was taking a while so I decided to go out.

I bumped into the Female OFW that I blogged about two entries ago; she lost her baby during birth. I asked how is she, she's still in shock, but staying strong. She said that she was discharged just in time to be at home for her eldest's 8th birthday. She can walk normally now, and she looks stronger. She may have lost her baby, but she regained her life back, somehow. I left her for a while to check who are still in the ward and came back to her with questions. What happened to Topher (Wiggly 3) and Sonny (Wiggly 1). She said that Topher's mom wanted his son to be transferred to a different hospital because Topher's condition is not getting any better and is having a hard time sleeping at night. Sonny was transferred to RITM for some reason, he developed several infections. The last time I saw Sonny, he was almost just skin and bones; that time the father said to me that he wouldn't want to eat anymore and is getting weaker and weaker.

I may not know Sonny personally nor I was close to his family and I never have spoken to him. He was the first one who was at the bed at my right when I was confined. For a few days I saw how he struggled, I saw how he cried in pain, I saw how he endured every high fever attacks he had every single night. I saw how sad he was, I saw pain through his eyes in the rare moments our eyes would cross. I saw how his father would wipe and clean up his frail body everyday and how his mom would embrace him when he is having chills at night. I saw how he fought and how his parents stood by him, yet he lost the battle. Sonny died after a few days of being transferred to RITM. It's very heart breaking for me to know that he had moved on, he was only in his early twenties, and I just saw him alive 2 weeks ago.

Fred sent me a text message while I was waiting at the Ward's lobby... He said that his CD4 count is now at 97. I was shocked by the news. I was so in shock that I didn't know what to reply. The gloomy day just became gloomier and gloomier. It's a fact that anyone with a CD4 count of below 200 with one or several opportunistic infections will be diagnosed as someone with an HIV Clinical Stage 4, or someone with AIDS. I am so sad with the news, I almost couldn't bare all the heart breaking stories I found out this morning. Fred's tummy is still under observation and he has a long list of lab work to be done, and some medicines to relieve the pain.

Now that someone very close and dear to me is going to a battle of his own. I want to be there for him.

Fred, you will never be alone in your battle. I will always be here for you, we will fight this dreaded condition together, and we will not only survive, but we will live. So hold on, and we will move forward and fight.

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