Tag: child health
-
Jul 12, 2011
How, and When, Do You Tell a Child She is HIV-positive?
Telling a child she is HIV-positive is difficult in many ways. Last month, I was in Kigali, Rwanda to give the keynote address at the 6 th International Conference for Exchange and Research on HIV/AIDS. I spoke about telling children their HIV-positive status and the difficulties this disclosure presents. In the last decade, pediatric HIV/AIDS treatment and care programs have been widely scaled-up throughout Africa. Many more children have been placed on lifesaving antiretroviral medications, but there has been little focus on the psychosocial issues that children and families face, especially when it comes to disclosure. In the early years of the HIV epidemic in the United States, I cared for HIV-positive children and their families as a nurse practioner. Recent research coming out of several African countries, 1-3 including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Africa, reflect my own experiences. For example, one of the things that struck me about the research was the finding that few caregivers have told their children about their diagnosis because they fear that children are unable to fully understand their illness, will face stigma... Read More » -
Mar 16, 2010
Scaling Up Family Planning and Maternal and Child Health Best Practices
I just returned from Bangkok, Thailand where over 400 professionals representing 13 countries in the Asia and Middle East Region came together to wrestle with the complex issue of scaling up family planning and maternal and child health best practices. The USAID Extending Services Project organized this week-long meeting to galvanize country-led efforts to identify, plan for and put in place evidenced-based, cost-effective practices that can greatly reduce maternal, infant and child mortality. I was repeatedly struck by the impressive results being achieved throughout the region, and by the incredible enthusiasm, commitment and courage voiced by our country colleagues – whether it was the Director of the Tamil Nadu, India National Rural Health Mission describing how their government is investing in quality emergency obstetric services; the Deputy Minister of Health of Yemen explaining how they have greatly increased coverage of post-partum family planning; or the Director General for Health Services of the Ministry of Health of Nepal sharing their experience in supporting over 48,000 community health workers who offer key maternal and child health interventions that... Read More »
