Sunday 31 July 2011

BREAST FEEDING MAKES A BABY STRONG

Post Courier 1 August 2011

This week is breast-feeding Week and UNICEF joins global partners in calling for the benefits of breast-feeding to be broadcast beyond clinics and delivery rooms to the public at large.

This is to ensure that young people in the developing world understand the importance of breastfeeding long before they become parents.

Breastfeeding is directly linked to reducing the death toll of children under 5 years, yet only 36% of infants under 6 months in developing countries are exclusively breastfed.

Scientific evidence has shown that breastfeeding could lead to a 13 % reduction in deaths of children if exclusively breastfed for 6 months and continued to be breastfed for up to a year.

Breastfeeding also prevents low height for infants that can cause irreversible physical and brain damage. Breastfeeding is a natural and nurturing start to life ffor infants and mothers.

Comment:  Breast milk is rich in protein, fats, vitamins and antibodies that the baby needs from the beginning. Most important is the creamy milk at the very start of the flow of breast milk called colostrum. It carries the first important load of nutrients.

We may notice the weak puppy in a litter of baby dogs. There is always one that is weak and never improves in health.

This puppy may have been last born and last to drink the milk of the mother. It missed out on the first creamy milk and was too weak to drink from that time on. It will die.

HIV positive mothers can breast-feed but need to be on ARV medicine with a double-precaution of the baby being given ARV too. This will make sure that HIV does not reach the baby and does not shorten the life of the mother.


FOUR GRAMS OF SALT A DAY IS ENOUGH

Post Courier 1 August 2011

Links between high blood pressure and salt intake have been made for the first time in Australians.

A study of 783 Australians by Deakin University and the Cancer Council of Victoria found that those who ate large amounts of salt were twice as likely to have high blood pressure.

Those who took part had urine samples analysed for sodium and potassium levels which indicate daily dietary salt intake.

They had their blood pressure recorded and were asked how much salt they used in cooking and at the table. Most ate excessive amounts of salt and just 5 percent sticking to the recommended limit of 4 grams a day.

More than 40% were classified as hypertensive or suffering from high blood pressure.

Comment:  My family hardly eats any salt as I always forget to buy. There is no habit of my children in putting salt on their food.

There is always salt in biscuits and tinned food. Our fortnightly feed of fish and chips or chicken and chips gives as much as we need.

Last week, I bought a packet of salt and put a little on the cooked food only to find the kids had done the same.

I can tell I am not used to salt as I could taste salt on my tongue for about 2 days. The secret is not to have salt in the cupboard or on the table. Hide it.

JULIE DIED DEMENTED

Some months after Linda died, her carer was involved with helping Joe Lari of 3 Angels Care with people suffering from HIV/AIDS. There were several young women at the Centre and in the final stages of the virus.

They were thin with hair falling out making them look like old women of 85 years. There was no ARV in those days. The people on the drugs are now able to start a new life.

Joe had one extra young woman but no space. I volunteered to help her by allowing her to stay at my home. Her name was Julie (not her real name) She was the sister-in-law of a senior parliamentarian at that time.

When his brother died of AIDS, he took his sister-in-law wrapped in a blanket and dumped her. She was found and passed on to the Provincial AIDS Office.

She came to my house and lived for 6 weeks before she died. That was really hard work. I did not know what I was getting myself into.

She used to wander around. The problem is that with dementia, she may not be able to find her way back. Such people can wander like lost sheep. If they leave the house, they may not be able to return.

One night she asked to be let out of the iron security door to the kitchen to wash her clothes in the laundry.

I went back to work on the computer and suddenly realized that there was no sound of washing. She was gone. I searched the streets but with no success.

At about 3.00am, there was a knock at the door. It was Julie come back. She said she had never left but was sitting under the house playing cards with a group of men. This lady was demented.

Later she told the neighbour that she was playing and won K1500. Then the police arrived and arrested the white man. She went down to Boroko police station and bailed him out. It cost her K1500. He must have done something really bad.

Some days later, she advised that her room had been attacked by raskols in the night and they had stolen all her goods. But she was saved by the Prime Minister who came to the window in a helicopter.

These are what are called delusions or hallucinations. With delusions, we only think. With hallucinations, we actually see people as in a dream.

CBMB Research
These include HIV-1 associated dementia (Pulliam, Rempel), smoking/asthma (Fahy,
Woodruff), airway remodeling (Arjomandi), antibiotic resistance and ...

www.epibiostat.ucsf.edu/biostat/cbmb/projects/ - Cached - Similar

Columbus OH Neurologist Doctors - Dementia Symptoms, Types, Stages ...
10 Jul 2011 – Symptoms depend on the type of dementia the individual suffers. ...
Robert Ted Woodruff 750 Mt Carmel Mall ..... HIV is a type of virus called a
retrovirus, which infects humans when it .... Risk factors for TIA include
vascular disease, smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes. ...
www.medicinenet.com › ... › dementia indexdementia article - Cached - Similar


AIDS dementia complex - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
AIDS dementia complex (ADC; also known as HIV dementia, HIV
encephalopathy, HIV-associated dementia and HIV-associated
neurocognitive disorder) is a common ...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
AIDS_dementia_complex - Cached - Similar

Her health dropped over the weeks. My children said that Julie used to go through my trouser pockets and take money to smoke. She liked to sit outside under the house. Then the smoke would drift away. The cigarettes helped in her rapid decline in health.

Cigarette smoking by HIV infected individuals is associated with a ...
Cigarette smoking by HIV infected individuals is associated with a more rapid
... BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoking has many effects on immune function, ...

gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/102199827.html - Cached - Similar

Tobacco use and nicotine dependence among HIV-infected and ...
26 Sep 2010 ... INTRODUCTION: Urban U.S. populations are burdened
by intersecting epidemics of HIV infection, injection drug use, and
cigarette smoking. ...www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20875704

She preferred to sleep on the ground outside. So a mattress was placed under a tree. Then she would urinate and defaecate on the sheets and mattress. It would all stink. And she would stink.

I would carry her to the bathroom like a giant stick insect. It is not good for a man to be washing a woman’s private parts. All she had to do would be to cry rape and the trouble would only just be starting. Her dementia may start her thinking that way.

On her last night, I awoke to find Julie gasping for air. She could not breathe. It may be that the virus and smoking had finally destroyed her immune system and red blood cells. Her water-salt balance did not exist any more. It may have been tuberculosis.

She was suffocating. I sat beside her until she died. Then I wrapped her body in a sheet and took her to the morgue.

FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING - AIDS HOLISTICS
28 Mar 2011 ... his son Damon in about 1993. He was infected with HIV ...
Posted by HIV/AIDS: FAMILY POSITIVE LIVING at 16:46 · Email
This BlogThis! ...familypositiveliving.blogspot.com/.../
case-study-in-aids-dementia-dementia_1904.html - Cached - Similar

There are deep similarities between the demented responses of Julie, Linda and Damon.  All thought they were being hunted to be killed by evil forces. The story of Damon Courtenay was written by his father and family  after he died of AIDS in 1993.

Amazon.com: April Fool's Day (9780140272932): Bryce Courtenay: Books
The author of THE POWER OF ONE celebrates the life of his son Damon, a
haemophiliac, who died from medically acquired AIDS at the age of 24. ...

www.amazon.com/April-Fools-Day...Courtenay/.../0140272933 - Cached - Similar

HIV INFECTION THROUGH BREAST MILK


Perhaps we do not understand the difficulties an HIV infected mother will have in breast feeding a baby.

If she had followed correct procedure, she will have been on antiretroviral drugs from earlier in her pregnancy. Her baby will have been given drugs from birth.

The mother remains on ARV drugs through breast feeding and on through her life.

This means the viral load of the mother will have dropped to zero, causing zero viral load in blood and breast milk.


But what will happen if the mother lives far away in the highlands and runs out of ARV drugs? There has been a flood and the bridge has been washed away. She can not come down to the hospital for more drugs.

It means that her viral load will quickly rise, increasing the load in blood and breast milk. If she has run out of ARV, the chances are her baby will have no ARV too. The baby will quickly become HIV positive.

GIVE HIRI MOALE A FAMILY FOCUS


In the time
before
when the land
was dry
the Motu set out
to trade for sago
and the families
watched
and waited
and worried.
Then the men
came back
and the women
danced and sang
as they do today.
Welcome to
Hiri Moale.

What is the key word in the poem above used in the
TV advertising over a decade ago?

It is family. Sadly the Hiri Moale festival has a focus
on grass skirts and breasts.

It would be great if the Hiri Moale had dancing girls
as always. But let there be a deeper focus on family.

After all, the men went up to the Gulf Province to
find food for their families. The families watched
and waited.

They rejoiced when the men came back. Many men
were lost in storms as late as the 1950s. It was then
that the administration stopped the voyages.

Let there be a focus on family. Hula dancers for tourists.
Family activity for villagers. Churches, women’s groups,
schools and youth groups to be involved.

We are
the people
of the sea
who left
a distant shore
and came
to this land
in the time before.
The winds that blew
our crab claw sails
pushed the clouds
along the shore
and so we went
to sea again
to follow the winds
and trade for sago.
This is our culture
and every year
we live the past
again.

Welcome to
Hiri Moale.

Saturday 30 July 2011

TELL FAMILY OF YOUR HIV STATUS

It is so important to let family know that you are HIV positive. Do not hide your secret out of fear of rejection. Pick the family member most likely to support you and protect you. This person can advise other members quietly.

Perhaps your mother will be best or your grandmother or aunt. You may have the strongest relationship with your big brother.

When you go for counseling, take your family support with you. Both of you can receive advice and ask questions. If your supporter comes each time, the advice will become part of family knowledge.

In early stages, counseling will be very basic:

Stop smoking and boozing
Eat nutritious fruit and vegetables
Go for ARV treatment and check-up
Do daily exercise
Do not worry
Live a normal life in the family
Help with the house
Have hope and peace
Drink plenty of clean water
Spend time in the morning sun.

It is important that family knows. They may be worried about the story getting out to the extended family. But that does not change the fact that the family member is sick and needs peace and love. There should be no abuse and anger at the sick person.

It may be best to change the lifestyle of the family members. All will eat nutritious food and drink clean water. Family goes to church as a group. All show love and caring to one another. No violence between family members.

There must be family members who know of the HIV status of their loved one. There needs to be a family commitment to take the sick one down to the medical centre for new supplies of drugs. It may be 3 days drive down the highway.

If there is no commitment and the drugs run out before the new supplies come, the sick person may die. In the highlands, there may be landslides, road blockages, bridge down and tribal fights. There needs to be several days reserve of drugs to meet emergencies.

Many PNG people would have died in recent years from having no more drugs for several days or weeks. The HIV virus will attack them strongly until death.

********************

Comment:  I looked after Linda and son Jonathan for over 3 years with HIV. She would not let me tell her parents for almost all that time.

When I first met her, she was full of happiness and joy. We would visit her family and she would laugh, smile and tell jokes. She was very lively and hard working. Just the woman to look after my daughters.

Then she was diagnosed HIV positive. The laughter stopped. No more funny stories. She would scream and shout in the hearing of family who had no idea of what was going on. So they blamed the carer.

He was even bashed by her brothers for abusing her. But over that time, she was dying of AIDS and suffering the onset of dementia. Her loving care turned to violence.

As time went on, she had frightening dreams and delusions. She believed highlanders had planned to kill her. She could see an old Samurai woman who turned into a black bird and was waiting in the trees at night to kill her.

She thought her carer was trying to kill her and threatened to kill his daughters to stop him. She was demented enough to do something crazy. Such people are on a pendulum between being mentally disturbed and completely sane. It has an on-off switch.

Family was told in the year before she died and they took her away to Madang. They were in denial and thought that if they ignored the virus, it would go away. She died in December 2003.

This was in the era before ARV drugs. Linda made her health worse by smoking in secret. In the absence of ARV drugs, her baby son had chest infections from her smoking that opened the door to the HIV virus in breast milk. He died in May 2002.

I now feel very sad for Linda and her parents, children and brothers. Her family loved her and would have responded with caring to news that she had HIV infection. But she would not allow them to be told.

Therefore the only person to blame was the man caring for her. She used to be strong. Now she is skeleton like and weak. She used to be happy and carefree. Now she is angry and emotional. Someone has to be to blame.

Friday 29 July 2011

SUGAR DADDY GAYS MAKE EASY TARGETS

There have been several expatriate men in recent years who have died violently. The official word is that they were killed by raskol intruders. That may well be true.

But there is another possible explanation in that the man was gay and killed by someone who was being taken home for sex or staying in the apartment or boat.

We all take risks if we choose a man or boy from the street and take him home. We risk that he will be violent and steal. Gay men take that risk every time they take a boy from a nightclub. The boy may not be gay just a criminal.

It could be an opportunistic attack by a boy who is taken to an apartment and sees so much electrical equipment including desk top computer and hundreds of DVDs.

He waits for the expatriate to finish sex and sleep. He will either slip out with a back pack full of valuables. Or attack the man.

That is why so many men both expatriate and national take their intending lovers to a hotel or their boat. That way the expatriate hides his identity and address.

But Murphy’s Law says that if some attacks can be planned, this will happen. A paedophile goes to a nightclub. His name is known to be Peter. He is known to the security guards that he likes little boys. His address is known as other boys have been there.

A young man is selected by wantoks to be available to Peter. He goes home with him. The young man knows a security guard who will let him out at 2am with no questions asked. It was arranged the day before. Expatriates would never dream that such planning could take place.

So during the night, the gay man is attacked naked on his bed. The young man finds a large kit bag and fills with all kinds of valuables. He takes his wallet and mobile phone.

Then the attacker walks out the front security gate with K200 for the friendly security guard. If the expatriate is still alive, the incident will never be reported.

And the police say it was an intruder who climbed the fence and wall of the house. He may have been Spiderman. The victim will hide the real story.

We know that gay sex in this country will involve an expatriate man and a national young man or boy.  It may be that we will witness a slow rise in murder and robbery.

Expatriates are haves and the boys they have sex with are have-nots. Something has to happen. Gay sex opens doors that would otherwise be locked with security doors, guards and dogs. Think of the unsolved murders in recent months to the present. Gay secrecy makes murders easy.

THE SUGAR DADDY SYNDROME


Bata Hewali  Weekend Courier 30 July 2011

As soon as I decide to stop posting reports, there are quality reports in the media that have to be summarized and posted. This is another below:

Sugar Daddies are not grown and produced in the sweet Ramu Valley like Ramu sugar or sold in Seeto Kui variety stores like King Sugar.

They are grown right in your bedroom, share the same bed with you, same cup of tea, wear the same slippers. They are the ones you warned your daughters about.

Sugar daddies refer to elderly men, often married, who lure girls often as young as 14-15 years old with money or expensive gifts in exchange for sexual favours. It is like a disease and the girls become addicted to this lifestyle and see it as the only means of survival.

At night clubs, which is ground zero for sugar daddies, you see these girls all giggly and groggy in short skimpy skirts or tight hip-hugging jeans.

And you wonder how they got into the nightclub in the first place. Most nightclubs today have no code of entry and underage girls have no problems getting through the door. No ID is required when she flashes a set of pearly whites.

It is not long before a tray of drinks arrives, compliments of bossman over in the corner. By the end of the night, she is riding shot gun in his flashy tinted vehicle. A hotel room is booked and the following weekend, she has the latest touch mobile phone so that he can call her again.

Sugar daddies like to shower their young girls with gifts and often do not hesitate to dish out money for their every whim. Second hand shops and haus kais are frequented and she emerges wearing tiny shorts and t-shirt that could fit a five year old.

School does not appeal any more and her dreams of becoming a doctor or lawyer is all but forgotten. Young girls are looking for a better life and they engage in a relationship with a sugar daddy as her ticket out of the hard life.

And the sugar daddy knows this and like the slyness of a fox takes advantage of her, weaving his wicked magic. When seen together, the couple could be mistaken for father and daughter or even grandfather.

The frequent phone calls from his wife get a devious…am with my boss and am working late. Precious time with the kids is replaced with time with the young Barbie.

The once peaceful family life is disturbed with arguments at home, kids get ignored with meager lunch money for the kids, bills not paid on time and he gets more abusive when he tries to protect his little missus which by now is neighborhood gossip.

His pretty wife suddenly becomes his punching bag with loose teeth, broken bones and broken lips. She lives in fear and takes her revenge in the street, in search of the home wrecker Barbie to put a knife through her.

The sugar daddy habit brings HIV/AIDS into families or forces a neglected wife into prostitution to earn money for her and her neglected children. Unwanted pregnancies add to forced marriage, polygamy and harsh and unethical methods of abortion. Court battles ensue into adultery and divorce.

But for the very weak woman, she suffers while her husband fools around because she is not the bread winner and can not support the children. She broods in silence, cries all the time and masks her scarred heart with a happy face. What happens? Nothing.

The wicked Sugar Daddy just drives home to her after dropping off the young girl walks in and says “ Hi honey, I missed you”.

The Standard | Online Edition :: Sugar daddy syndrome
Sugar daddy or sponsor is slang used to describe a rich man who offers money or ...
from my village who was two years ahead of me and she was living lavishly. ...
There have been cases of those who already know they are HIV positive ...
standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000015282&cid=616 - Cached

ORANGES IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA HIGHLANDS

It is great to read that there is an orange industry building up in the highlands.  Oranges are important for the health of the nation. We read the view expressed that people do not realize that the cold climate is excellent for growing citrus fruit.

A recent report stated that one man had planted 3000 orange trees on his land in the fertile Wahgi Valley. Let us hope that the oranges are of good quality. It would be worthwhile to import seedlings from overseas.

The population of Papua New Guinea should provide a ready market for oranges. But we have to recall the difficulties of the Australian orange industry about 20 years ago.

The farmers ended up destroying massive amounts of oranges and orange trees because of the competition from the overseas market especially South America. If Papua New Guinea is to have an overseas market, the oranges have to be of top quality.

We must not forget that other fruit grow well in the cold climate. The apple grows from seeds. There are stone fruit such as peaches, apricots and plums. The health of this nation would certainly improve with citizens having a regular diet of fruit.

At present, oranges and mandarins are bought in the supermarket for up to K15 for a plate of 4. But then these are better quality than those sold in the markets. But the market oranges are sweet. Perhaps the LNG and Ramu NiCo projects will buy large quantities of oranges.

ANTIBIOTICS NOT GOOD FOR OUR BODIES

The National 29 July 2011

There was a fascinating report in Papua New Guinea daily newspaper The National on the fact that the modern race of human beings has harmed our bodies with antibiotics. There are a large number of bacteria in our bodies, particularly in the gut that harm us or help us.

Helpful bacteria assists us to digest food. We have a colony of helpful bacteria in our appendix. Cows have a massive colony of bacteria in their stomachs to break down cellulose in grass.

But the human race has made life difficult for our immune system by being too clean and preventing much bacteria from passing into our bodies.

As well, we have killed out both good and harmful bacteria with antibiotics. In the modern family, parents reach automatically for ammoxylin as soon as the child has a cut or sore. This is overuse of antibiotics applied even before infection has set in. Antibiotics are useless against viruses.

The Danger of Antibiotic Overuse
When you bring your child to the doctor for a cold or flu, do you ... Here's why taking antibiotics
too often or for the wrong reason can do more harm than good. ... Every year, your family probably
faces its share of colds, sore throats, ... Taking antibiotics for colds and other viral illnesses not
only won't ...kidshealth.org › ParentsFlu Center - Cached - Similar

As a boy, any sore or cut on my body was bathed in hot water and Dettol until the inflammation had gone down. My mother had no antibiotics in the house. But then no-one did. We had to go to the hospital for a penicillin injection.

This report does not refer to the coccidian gut parasites that infest the gut lining of gay men who eat faeces. These are the parasites out of hell that overwork the immune system.

If the medicine that gay men take is antibiotic, they are routinely weakening their health. We all have to go back to bathing our external infections in hot water and Dettol antiseptic.

The humorous part of the newspaper report was the sweet young lady with a lolly earthworm in her mouth. Not an earthworm dear. It is a much smaller gut parasite that you can scarcely see.

Thursday 28 July 2011

HIV + WOMEN STILL WANT CHILDREN


Post Courier 29 July 2011

The Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation reports a study of women living with HIV who still want to have children. This was from a study of Fijian and Papua New Guinea.

It was reported that women are still confused about whether or not they could have an HIV negative child.

Many had given birth to HIV+ children who had been infected and died. Mothers were often the care giver of HIV+ husbands.

Gossip and physical isolation were among discriminatory practices that affected Pacific women. Women tend to be blamed and viewed as the source of infection.

Comment:

HIV infected babies.  There was a time when women had to give birth and put the infection of the baby into the hands of fate. We remember being advised that a woman with low viral count may give birth to a HIV negative baby.

But that has all changed. It is no longer left to fate. The mother takes ARV early in the pregnancy. Check with your doctor.

The viral count in the blood stream drops to zero if the treatment succeeds. This means that the baby at birth will not be infected in blood mixing with mother’s blood.

If there is zero count in the blood of the mother, there will be zero count in the milk. The mother need not feel worry about infecting her baby with the virus in breast milk.


Isolation of wife:  AIDS Holistics has routinely warned women to take care about where they will live after marriage. If their village is on the Papuan coast and they live with a husband in Kerowagi, they will be in big trouble during marriage difficulties.

If the man is found to be HIV positive and he blames the wife, his family will support him not the wife from the coast of Papua. She was the one who infected their family member. Let him bash her. What if she was raped by her brother-in-law and she is afraid to speak out?

A woman has to be careful about marrying a man from far away. It would be best if she could travel by PMV for 2 hours back to her village when she runs away from her violent husband.

If she leaves on a PMV down the highway, she can be easily stopped by her husband’s wantoks with the aid of a mobile phone. Stop so-and-so PMV and take my wife and child off.

COUNSELLING ON HIV/AIDS


How long will I live?

You will live for 10-12 years if you live by Positive Living. You can go on for 20 years or more with ARV drugs. You have to be careful with ARV treatment and follow the instructions of the doctor.

You have to live in peace with your family. Eat nutritious fruit, nuts, grains and vegetables. Drink plenty of clean water. Do not booze or smoke. Modern research shows that HIV-infected people die quickly if they smoke.

Can my daughter give HIV to my family?

In normal living in the family, she can not give the virus to family members except during sex with her husband. They both need to use a condom. The virus is transmitted by mixing of body fluids. This will not happen in normal family living.

Your daughter can hug and kiss family members, use the same toilet and cooking utensils. It would be good to allow her to cook for the family. Your family has to let her go back to normal as soon as possible.

Encourage her to go out with her friends. She can still play netball. In the afternoons, she can play volley ball with the young people in the settlement.

Can she cook food for the family?

Of course she can. She can not pass the virus while cooking food. It would be unusual for a woman to cut her finger with a knife and allow blood to drop. Most food is cooked at high temperature.

She has to feel that life is going on as before. If she cooked for the family before, let her still do that. She must not be rejected and kicked out of the house. If she has a job in town or works in the garden, the family still has someone who can bring money into the house.

How can my family help her?

Your family can help her by loving her. We all die and still have to go on with life. Who knows but other family members may die before your daughter does. They may be in a car accident or killed in a fight. Let us all live in love while we are alive.

Do not shame or blame your daughter. She has a baby to look after. Help her do that. Both of them are members of your family. When she is on ARV drugs, help her to get new supplies. She must not run out of drugs or she will die.

Keep her HIV status secret in the family. Other people do not have to know. Take care that family members who are married to your sons and daughters do not spread the news to their families.

Can she live long on ARV drugs?

She can live for a long time on ARV drugs. She has to be careful and talk to the doctor if the drugs give problems. Drugs can have side effects. Some drugs make the person tired and sick all the time. The person should go back to the doctor.

Drugs should be taken every day at the same time. The person should make a routine of taking the drugs every night after the evening meal or in the morning after breakfast. If the drugs are stopped even for a day, the person may be ill and can die as the virus becomes immune to the drugs.

In Papua New Guinea, the first line of drugs is free. If immune to the drugs, then the person will have to go on to the next line of drugs. These are not free. Most people in PNG can not afford to buy their own drugs. So they have to treat the free ARV drugs with respect.

Problems come in this country if the person lives in a rural area and has difficulty traveling to the city to obtain a new supply of drugs. Problems will come if there is delay through rain, blocked roads, tribal fights or lack of money to pay for the PMV.

A few years ago, there was an experiment conducted in Australia to find out how people with HIV responded to stopping ARV drugs. They would take the drugs for a month and then stop for a month. The experiment was stopped when most of the people died.

How can my daughter keep strong?

She will keep strong if she is happy and at peace within the family. Her stress levels are down. She eats nutritious food and drinks plenty of clean water. She eats much fresh and ripe fruit, nuts, grains and vegetables from the market.

She keeps herself clean every day with soap and water. She exercises every day in going to work, walking up and down mountains and carrying bags from the gardens.

She does not smoke cigarettes with tobacco of marijuana and does not drink beer or homebrew. Help her to have fellowship with friends by involving her with church or other activities.

Why is my son violent and having bad dreams?

If your son has been infected with the virus for a number of years and not on ARV, the time will come when he suffers brain damage. This will come if he has not been drinking plenty of clean water. He is no longer taking good food, salts and water into his body. His brain is being affected.

He may start having bad dreams and being afraid that people are going to hurt him. He may see people who are not there. This is called dementia.

As time goes by, he will start to lose his memory. He may turn the tap on and forget to turn it off. He may cook food and forget. The family must support him.

He may go out in final stages and forget how to come home. The family must take care he is not lost. He may go to town and have sex with other people.

Will my baby be HIV positive?

An HIV infected mother can pass the virus on to her baby in the womb or at the breast. The baby can be infected at birth as the blood of the mother mixes with the blood of the baby as it passes down the birth canal.

It is important that the pregnant mother goes for an AIDS test before giving birth. If HIV positive, she should be given ARV drugs to reduce the viral load in the blood to zero from the 28th week. Check on the week with the doctor.

Then there will be no virus in the blood to infect the baby. The virus can pass from the mother’s blood to the breast milk and the baby can be infected. Recent advice from the Papua New Guinea Department of Health is that a breast fed baby should also take ARV drugs while the HIV-infected mother breast feeds.

It is important that the mother does not smoke during breast feeding. The milk will be infected with HIV and the chemicals from the cigarettes. These will pass to the baby. Cigarette chemicals will cause infection of the throat and chest of the baby. This will enable transmission of the virus to the baby.

HIV mothers can give the virus to the baby through breast milk, particularly if not on ARV. At times, other young children may ask the mother for breast milk Mama mi laikim susu. But the small child may have colds, chest infections and infections from cutting or losing teeth. This may allow entry of the virus from a mother not on ARV.

With ARV treatment for baby and mother, the baby should be born and pass through the breast feeding without infection with HIV.

My son is gay. How can I help him?

Gay men suffer most in the AIDS pandemic. Their lifestyle opens the door to a wide range of infections. Anal sex can give them anal cancer more than any other group in the community. Gay men should regularly visit the doctor who can locate the lesions in the anal wall that lead to anal cancer.

Gay men are involved in anal sex and face the danger of infection through the eggs of coccidian gut parasites that may enter their mouths from faeces and lay eggs in the intestinal wall, destroying the capacity of the gut to absorb nutrients and water.

Oral sex can transmit HIV through the lymph nodes and tonsils of the mouth. All people who engage in oral sex may be infected in this way. There is a false belief that HIV infection can not take place through the mouth. He is still your son. Love and protect him. Let him see that family is important.

What errors can churches make?

Many reports have come across the nation of clergy giving faith healing to people living with HIV/AIDS. They tell the person that they are healed and to go forth into the world again.

These people may go forth and some will think they can return to their old life style of promiscuous sex, rubbish food, tobacco and marijuana smoking with beer and home brew drinking. But they are not cured and still suffer from the HIV virus. Then they die.

Other reports show that some clergy are advising the congregation not to live with ARV drugs but by the healing grace of God.

One church in Port Moresby has been known to have the pastor speak out to all those in the congregation who were HIV positive. He would tell them they were cured.

This is foolish behaviour that can only make people angry when they are not cured. If on ARV drugs and people cease as the result of the advice of the pastor, they can die with a new outburst of the virus.

Faith can be important in the lives of all people. Positive Living can certainly help the HIV sufferer to live long without ARV drugs. But to advise people to go off their ARV drug treatment and trust in God is leading these people to certain death.

From Scripture we read that Jesus healed by faith. So too a number of disciples were able to heal. But that does not mean that the clergy of the world have the capacity to lay on hands and heal the sick.

Several years ago, there was a young woman living with HIV/AIDS and staying at 3 Angels Care Centre. One weekend she went home and attended church with her family.

After the church service, the pastor met with the family and spoke to the young woman. She was obviously in final AIDS. She was thin with no muscle on her bones and her hair had been falling out. Her fingernails were cracking. Her body was depleted of protein.

The pastor laid his hands on her head and told her that she was cured in the name of Jesus. She did not return to the centre for a number of weeks. Then she came with a cigarette in her mouth to announce she was cured. She died two weeks later.

Why am I on ARV and always tired?

This can be the side effect of the ARV drug. In cells of the body are small compartments that take in the nutrients, oxygen and water to produce a chemical reaction that powers the cells and tissues. These are called the mitochondria.

It promotes a reaction called the Krebs Cycle and produces the ultimate body chemical called adenosine tri-phosphate. But there are ARV drugs that can block the mitochondria and prevent the chemical reaction. The main drug is the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors.

If ARV drugs and the person feels tired all the time, it is important to go to the doctor who prescribed the drugs and ask advice on changing the dosage of drugs.

What happens if I stop taking ARV drugs?

We have to understand that the ARV drugs kill the virus in the bloodstream. This means that the attack on the gut lining slows down and stops. If the ARV treatment starts early, the gut lining will not be completely destroyed and will start to mend as there is no HIV in the blood to destroy the CD4 cells in the gut lining.

But there is still HIV in the hiding places or reservoirs. These are the organs of the lymph system that include the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes and marrow of the long bones. The red and white cells are made in the marrow. T-cells are made in the thymus.

So when the person stops taking the ARV, the virus will burst out of the hiding places or reservoirs. The HIV will flood the blood stream again. There will be a new attack on the gut lining.

There will be a massive drop in health as the absorption of nutrients, salts and water ceases again. The water-salt balance will be changed again. As well, the bacterial waste from the gut will flood back into the blood and into the brain. Type leaky gut HIV brain into Google. The person may quickly die.

Do you understand problems with ARV supplies?

You live in the highlands three days walk from the road. You must plan your life so that you always get your ARV supplies before you run out of drugs. Your family needs to help you.

Do not wait until you have two days supply and then go off down the highway to get new supplies at the hospital. There may be problems with the road cut by floods, bridges washed away and road blocks set up by villagers. There may be tribal fights in your village or on the way down the highway.

So make sure that you have supplies for many days before you go for new supplies. If the rainy season has come, make sure that you talk to the doctor of being given extra supplies. If you have no drugs for a few days, you may die.

What can a raped woman do?

A woman who have been raped by a man or gang raped runs the risk serious risk of being infected with HIV if the attacker is HIV positive.

We have to understand that the virus enters the body through the genitals and passes to the lymph system. It passes around the blood for a day or two before beginning to enter the CD4 cells.

The woman can have ARV treatment that kills the virus in the blood stream and lymph system. The drugs have to be taken within 12 hours after the rape and continued for a month.

The virus will be killed before it enters the hiding places or reservoirs. The same applies to a nurse or doctor who has been stuck with the needle of a used syringe.

How does my body change?

There are changes that take place as the virus destroys the body systems. The first change is the fever that can occur within 3 weeks of infection.

It may be caused by the virus breaking down the gut lining or the bacterial waste translocating into the blood. Or it may be the time that the first wave of HIV comes out of the CD4 cells on replication.

Over the first years there are few indications that the person has HIV infection. There will be lumps in the groin as the virus enters the lymph nodes. This too can start early after infection.

The destruction of the gut lining brings problems as the body is unable to absorb nutrients, water and salts. As the gut lining is slowly destroyed by the HIV entering the CD4 cells in the gut wall, there is a slowing down in production of protein and glucose. This can be stopped with successful treatment with ARV drugs. But many PNG people still have no access dues to distance from a medical centre.

For people not on ARV, there are no stores of protein in the body except the protein in the muscle. Slowly the muscle protein is removed to be used elsewhere in the body. The person become skeleton-like. There is no future for any creature that eats itself.

As well, the depletion of the protein affects the replacement of protein in all body cells. We notice this more when the hair starts to fall out.

Women will find that large handfuls break off as they brush their hair. In final stages, their hair looks like that of an old woman of 90 years. As well, their finger and toe nails may start to crack at the half moon.

With the break down of the gut lining, the nutrients and water will not be absorbed. These will pass out of the body as diarrhoea or pekpek water.

There may be a slow onset of dementia that is the breakdown of the brain. It starts with the change in water-salt balance, breakdown in absorption of oxygen, nutrients, salts and water.

The person may suffer depression, anger, delirium, delusions, hallucinations and paranoia. They may dream and believe that people are trying to kill them.