HOPE Cape Town – projects
HOPE Cape Town has thus far been able to provide much needed HIV Resistance Blood Tests for three deserving children in 2011, and for another three children in 2012. As you may know, these expensive Resistance Tests are not yet available in the government sector and are thus unobtainable without sponsorship by organisations like ourselves.
After the resistance test we also provided for one of these children the much needed third line medication. With great regret, we have to report that this child passed away peacefully. This sort of personal scenario keeps us in touch with the cold reality of HIV and its associated illnesses. And it emphasizes the tremendous need for extra measures, such as resistance testing and advanced drug sponsorships, to be made avialable in order to ultimately combat HIV successfully.
HOPE Cape Town currently evaluates the results of a CD4 study. For this study 50 mothers of our patients on the Ithemba children’s ward in the Tygerberg Hospital were tested at the child visit. Even though they are often very ill themselves, the mothers often do not have their regular 6 month check up and are not automatically co-treated once their children have been admitted. As a result, many children are not cared for in a proper way after being discharged due to one or both parents being sick or even dying. Thanks to the company Alere Healthcare who had generously loaned a novel mobile point of care CD4 testing unit to HOPE Cape Town, we were able to perform instant CD4 counts for Ithemba ward parents. All it took was a finger prick and after 20 minutes the results were available. Depending on the result of the rapid test, the patient could then be referred immediately for further testing and treatment. About one third of the mothers qualified for urgent need to start treatment. We hope to lead the way to a comprehensive treatment of the whole family by this holistic approach.