The Valley Trust Provides ARVS

There is hope for AIDS patients living in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, as an anti-retroviral drug programme gets underway at The Valley Trust.? The programme will provide free ARV drugs to local residents, and is headed by Dr Stephen Carpenter.?

Dr Carpenter says:? ?The number of people dying of AIDS in the Valley is high, and increasing constantly. Forty-five percent of pregnant women who visit the ante-natal clinic here are HIV-positive.? Locals do not have access to hospitals such as R K Khan and St Mary?s to get ARVs, because it is too far to travel and there is a waiting list for the drugs. The Valley Trust realised the need to start its own ARV programme here, to make these drugs more accessible to its community.?

The project will receive funding from foreign aid to treat 50 patients.
Testing and enrolment for the ARV programme is open to residents of the greater Hillcrest area, KwaNyuswa, Embo, Molweni and Ngcolosi.? Dr Carpenter says there are several conditions which people have to meet to qualify for inclusion in the programme:? the patient must live in the greater Valley area, provide a valid identity document, take proof of their CD4 test results showing a count of below 200, and be willing to join an HIV support group.

Valley Trust nurses and counsellors have already been trained in preparation for the programme.? Twenty patients have already been enrolled and will also receive education to teach them about the drugs, how to control side-effects and how to eat healthily.?

?There are many misconceptions about ARVs,? says Dr Carpenter.? ?The drugs help people to build a strong immune system and may have some side-effects.? This is why we monitor each patient closely and if side-effects develop, we change their medication so that the drug combination is more suitable for their physical systems.?

?This is a life-long treatment, and people need to think it through carefully before deciding to go ahead with it.? As much as we are here to help, people need to help themselves by eating healthily and visiting the clinic on a monthly basis.?
(Adapted from an article published in the Highway Mail 24 March 2006)

Contact The Valley Trust at:

Postal Address: P O Box 33, Bothas Hill, 3660

Tel:?(031) 716 6800

Fax: (031) 777 1114

Email: [email protected] ??

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