The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Bensy likely to undergo ART therapy

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Saturday, Feb 09, 2008
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Bensy likely to undergo ART therapy

Staff Reporter

The HIV+ is under treatment in Sree Avittom Tirunal Hospital

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS) and the doctors at Sree Avittom Tirunal (SAT) Hospital are exploring the option of offering second-line anti-retroviral therapy (ART) to Bensy, the HIV-positive child from Kollam who is currently admitted to SAT Hospital in a progressive state of infection.

Bensy, 13, and her brother Benson, 11, have been in the spotlight since they were thrown out of school in 2003, when their HIV-positive status became known to the world. The social discrimination faced by the children and the government’s efforts to protect them had made national headlines.

Bensy has now been admitted to SAT Hospital as she has progressed to the AIDS stage, even though both the children have been on ART since 2004. She has been losing weight steadily and now weighs only 16 kg.

CD4 count very low

Her CD4 count is very low. However, she is not suffering from any acute problems at present, doctors treating Bensy told The Hindu.

“Extreme wasting is a natural process of HIV infection. The ART can only suppress the viral infection; we cannot stop its progress. How long one can be prolonged on ART depends on the individual’s immune status and the viral load. Benson, who is also on ART, continues to be fine,” Head of Paediatrics at SAT Hospital Lalitha Kailas said.

HIV-positive adults can live healthily for more than 20 years on ART. But the progress of the infection is usually very rapid in children even when ART is administered.

Severe depression

Doctors said Bensy has been under severe depression for a while now and as a budding teenager, her knowledge of her condition and the domestic situation – the children only have their blind grandmother to look after them – has been putting much psychological stress on her. She has not been eating at all, which has worsened her condition. Bensy and Benson were born with HIV infection and one of the first to be put on ART in the State in 2004. The then Union Health Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited the children and intervened on their behalf to secure them the ART.

KSACS officials said they were in touch with the National AIDS Control Organisation about obtaining the second line of ART for Bensy. However, the second line of drugs is yet to be introduced in ART in the country. Second-line ART drugs are not an option for everyone as they have severe side-effects.

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