Monday's Home visit

On Monday we went to see a woman at her house who is pregnant and HIV positive. On the way to the house we stopped by a "store" and got some sugar, as per custom, to bring to her. The shopkeeper poured about a kilo into a large grocery bag and this is what we brought. This mama is 26 years old. She already has three children and recently got an operation (I am not quite sure which) to make it so that she could no longer have children. Somehow this operation was not successful and now she is pregnant. She is really upset about this because her husband has just abandoned her and she is unable to work because of complications with the pregnancy. There is no way for her to fund her family, including primary school fees for three kids. While we were there, her landlady came in to tell the mama that she needed to pay rent- 36,000 tsh (about 30 dollars) for 2 rooms for 3 months. She is unable to pay at this time. I asked Amani if he was familiar with the treatments used to decrease the chances of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. He had no idea what I was talking about, and neither did the mama. They are familiar with ARVs, which are funded by some development association and are given out for free in Tanzania, but not with MTC drugs. I am continually finding that people are at such varying levels of education about HIV. Most are aware of the dangers, some are aware of how it is transmitted, but many are so misinformed that they are unable to properly protect themselves to begin with or live their life to the fullest once infected. It was an interesting, although sad, home visit.