HEALTH:
Why always I take Medicines and I’m not sick ?…..What’s wrongs ? I’m tired now to take medicine. The Children asks parents/guardian. It’s challenge to the parent/guardian to overcome this pressure but they should understand Important of the Medicines to Children.
Evidence shows that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy in infants and children reduces HIV-related morbidity and mortality. Since affects of drugs in children vary with age, drug doses must be adjusted with weights as the child grows.
This will reduce the risk of under/overdosing, which can inadvertently cause sub-optimal treatment response, resistance to drugs, or drug toxicity.
The goals of antiretroviral therapy for children are to:
- Suppress HIV replication and therefore prevent disease progression
- Preserve, enhance, or reconstitute the immune system and thus reduce opportunistic infections
- Reduce the morbidity
- Promote optimal growth and development
- Prolong the survival of HIV-infected children and improve their quality of life
In most children, the viral load decline is followed by raising CD4 cell counts after the initiation of ART.Generally,CD4 levels increase over the course of he first year of treatment, reach a plateau, and then continue to rise further over the second year.
However, in some children, severe immunosuppression may persist. The lower the CD4 levels at the start of ART, the slower the recovery. The persistent failure of CD4 response should alert the clinician to potential adherence problems or non-response to ART.
The goal of ART is to suppress viral replication with the aim of reducing the patient’s Viral load to an undetectable level. Undetectable viral loads of <50 copies/ml should be achieved and sustained. Uninterrupted ART with ongoing strict adherence will help maintain undetectable viral loads levels, thereby preventing damage to the body’s immune system and restoring and maintain healthy living.
In order to achieve these goals, the following strategies should be used:
- Adequate counselling for parent/guardian and the child, as soon as understanding is assured
- Creation of supportive environment for clients to maximize adherence to ART
- Rational sequencing of drugs for the preservation of future treatment options
- Monitoring of drug resistance in selected clinical settings
- Monitoring of toxicities and adverse drug reactions
Drug-related adverse reactions can occur immediately after ART initiation, or a few days to weeks later, or months after treatment initiation. They can vary in severity from mild to severe to life threatening and may be specific to the drug or generic to the class of drugs in use.
@ARV
@CD4