The Friends Foundation Inc is advising that children exposed to or living with HIV have to be faithful to their medication.
This comes after alarming statistics were reported by the National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS) noting 3,000 newly infected cases in 2017, one quarter of these being young people and children, and a total of 1,500 AIDS-related deaths.
FFI, through its program, identified the main causes of death among these children as; defaulting from treatment and loss to follow up treatment.
FFI highlighted this in its second newsletter released this week, stressing for parent(s) and guardian(s) to take responsibility for their child.
It advised that the child must attend regular reviews and treatment and take medication on time every day.
As a reminder, FFI warned that once a child misses their review and resupply of treatment, they are now vulnerable to becoming resistant to the medication.
“Resistance means that the treatment now has no effect on the child thus HIV can now run rampant in the body, causing loss of life,” it stated.
FFI also noted cases where children, upon being identified as exposed to or tested HIV positive, have not returned; thus becoming lost to follow-up.
Most times, this is because the parent(s) are afraid of being identified with HIV and neglect(s) the importance of providing proper care for their child/ children.
To reverse this statistics, FFI will providing regular monitoring of the child and provide group therapy commencing next month.
Bus fares are provided for the 35 registered children and the foundation is in the process of also trying to ensure transportation of clients to their review.