A Nakuru-based community volunteer health worker has appealed to parents whose children were infected with the AIDS causing virus from parents by virtue of birth to present their cases to protect them from further infections.
Fatuma Assumani who’s popularly known as ‘Nyanya wa Bondeni’ said having worked as a community volunteer since the 1990s when HIV/AIDs infections were at their worst, she perceives the perinatal children as heroes and overcomers who should be celebrated by society.
However, she said many parents and guardians still found it difficult to inform their perinatal infected children about their HIV status. And, a number of them use all sorts of excuses and untruths when the children become curious about the reason for taking drugs daily.
She told KNA during an interview that parents dreaded to disclose a positive HIV status to a child because of the negative effects it might have on them since they were aware of the stigma that still exists.
But she said at the Bondeni informal settlement areas where she has worked for over 30 years, she has been at the forefront of encouraging disclosure as early as eight years.
She said parents who have not informed their children recounted that they had contemplated starting the conversation but could not gather enough courage to follow through with those thoughts.
Fatuma said they cited the fear of robbing their child of their happiness of living without the knowledge of being positive, fear of making their own status known to more people, and the distress of creating enmity with their child, who might blame them for their status.
Also, she said at Bondeni, she has encouraged the community to celebrate the children and they were perceived as stars, who continued beaming light of the successes that have been achieved in the struggles of HIV\AIDs in the country.
Commemorating the achievements of the role of her colleagues as the world marks World Aids Day.
She said that even though they were not enumerated for their tasks, the appreciation from the patients for their assistance and their communities was a sufficient reward.
Fatuma said they chose to celebrate perinatal HIV-infected children who have survived through adolescence and adulthood due to acceptance and increased usage of the combination therapy because didn’t make it to adulthood.
Additionally, she said the World Health Organization recommends that children should be informed about their HIV status between the ages of 6-12 years in a caring and supportive manner.
However, she said youths in the Nakuru informal settlement areas were a serious cause of concern to her since a number of them were still getting infected due to sharing of sexual partners, who in most cases were older than them.
Finally, she said the stigma associated with the disease was still an impediment, and it was hardly discussed at household levels. And, it has been left to community workers and medics.
