HIV Through the Eyes of a Child

Joseph had another first this week – his first encounter with Google.  He loves it.  His first search was “motorcycle games” – a pretty reasonable search for a twelve-year-old Google user.  His second query?  “Where does HIV come from?”  When he asked Leila to enter this search, it made my heart ache.  Joseph was infected with HIV through his mother’s breast milk, and he is one of the 2.3 million children in the world that lives with the virus – 87% of these children live in Sub-Saharan Africa.  Indeed, Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the vast majority of all HIV and AIDS cases.  Tragically, and despite its prevalence here,  less than 1% of sexually active Africans are tested for the disease.

Joseph and one other Flying Kites child, Benson, live with HIV.  Flying Kites has decided to share this information with the public for several reasons, including that volunteers need to know about the disease’s presence in case of emergency at the Children’s Center, and also because we want to reduce the stigma attached with the disease for the children in our care.

Joseph is lucky, in a way – he appears to have a weaker form of the virus, because it is destroying his CD4 T-cells (his white blood cells that are part of his immune system) at a relatively slow rate.  We are doing everything we can to keep his immune system strong, prolong his lifespan, and give him a normal childhood.

Below are some of the questions that Joseph asked.  I learned a lot myself from his Googling, and I wanted to share it with you all.

Where did HIV come from?
Monkeys in Africa first carried the HIV virus.  It is thought that people hunting the monkeys contracted the disease through open wounds.

What are the stages of HIV?
Stage 1: Primary HIV infection.  A flu-like illness that may last for a couple weeks.  The virus may not show up in HIV tests at this point.
Stage 2: Asymptomatic stage.  During this stage, which can last up to ten years, no major symptoms are present.  However, HIV is present and destroys white blood cells.
Stage 3: Symptomatic stage.  Once the immune system has been damaged to a certain extent by HIV, infections and cancers develop in the body.
Stage 4: Progression from HIV to AIDs.  Once the symptoms become severe and prevalent enough, the person is considered to have AIDS.

How long does it take before HIV is considered AIDS?
Without antiretroviral medications, it usually takes about 10 years for HIV to progress to AIDS.

How can antiretroviral medications help?
Antiretroviral medications can slow HIV from progressing to AIDS – sometimes for 30 years or more.