My name is Nansubuga Norah and I am 75 years old. Yesterday, my granddaughter told me that I was HIV-positive.

My daughter died of the consequences of AIDS, like my son did some time after her. I took care of both of them, before they passed away. Yet, the condition of my son was much worse than that of my daughter. His skin pealed off and I used to wash him, his clothes, blankets, mattress, which were stained with vomit and blood. I think I got infected by nursing him. I now live at my daughters (41) place, who is living here with her husband and my grand daughter amongst others. My daughter took me in to take care of me. What I want the world to know is that when one is taking care of the sick, one should posses over sufficient knowledge or have access to information, because I got infected due to the lack of it.

Because I am too old to perform physical labor, my most urgent issues are of financial nature. Even though I have not started ART yet, I already know that the transport to the Mulago Hospital will be an issue. It costs 10,000 UGX to get there in order to collect the ARVs.

During a routine check, I also had a test for HIV. My daughter got the results and found out that I was tested positive. At first, she did not wanted to tell me, but now just did. I am not on ARV’s yet, but I am planning to do so soon. At this moment I have some skin rash, a lot of itching over my complete boy, external sores on my body and some small sores in my mouth. They are just so painful that sometimes I cannot eat or drink. So it happens I hardly take any food or fluids for a period of 2 months. As a result, I have lost my appetite. To conclude, my general health has become weak in general. I use some cream for the skin rash and some tablets for the other health complaints.

KIFAD is taking care of this family by regular home visits, monitoring and counseling. We have invited the whole family for a free of charge HIV-test. We have provided them with a health kit, containing a mosquito net, jerrican, health guide, condoms and we have paid the transport to the hospital. In addition, we have taken Reginah in, in our sewing course, to enable her to make an income to support her family.

Tags: Appetite, Arv, Arvs, Blankets, charity, Consequences Of Aids, counselling, Financial Nature, General Health, Grand Daughter, Granddaughter, Health Complaints, Health Kit, HI, Hiv Test, Home Visits, Kifad, Mattress, Mulago Hospital, Nature Even Though, Routine Check, Skin Rash, Stories from the field, Uganda, Ugx, Vomit

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