Dr Richard writes…
This is Edward from Touch Namowongo and I guess this is our commonest admission. Advanced HIV and pulmoary Tuberculosis… a deadly combination. He came in on a stretcher because he was so weak and malnourished…He weighed 26.5kgs. They get so sick they can’t eat or drink and end up looking like this..really skeletal. We gave him food through a naso- gastric and TB drugs and after about 3 weeks he walked home with his wife …weight still only 36kgs.
We feed with porridge…everybody gets it on Hope Ward…I’m not sure what nutritionists would make of it but its made from either maize or millet flour (I think it tastes horrid…uneducated palate) and it clearly contains plenty of calories and it works.
HIV prevalence is probably rising in Uganda and maybe nearing 10% of the population. About 50% of patients with HIV will have TB and it is the TB or other “opportunistic” infections which kill not the HIV. Unfortunately by the time they get to Hope Ward they are often so very sick because they come so late.
