The Magic of ART

Amidst all of the sadness of caring for very sick patients that often have problems that beat our capability of diagnosis and often our ability to treat, it is rewarding to see the magic that is Antiretroviral treatment.
The voluntary testing center here has tested about 20,000 people for HIV since they started 2001. Since they are the referral center for several hundred km around, they have registered around 7,000 HIV+ people that they follow with CD4 tests every 6 months. Over 3,000 people are on Antiretroviral treatment. They get seen every month and given a months worth of medications.
I love seeing patients come in that were very sick when they were diagnosed- very wasted, maybe weighing 70 lbs, tuberculosis, bedridden, etc...and then they come back, maybe only a year later. They've gained 10,20, 30 lbs. Their hair is shiny again, they have meat on their cheeks, they look well, and maybe they've even gone back to work. It's really amazing what these drugs can do when people take them every day. People are so thankful once they get on them. But sometimes it's a stuggle convincing them it's worth it to start. People often live very far away and coming here every month is a financial and time burden. But people go to incredible lengths to come here...and slowly, more centers are opening so that people can transfer care to closer to home. It's really amazing that this small town (400,000 people is small here) is considered the best place for HIV treatment anywhere in India, except maybe for 2 big gov't hospitals in Chennai and Delhi!