Nkuzane Clinic: Rolling out the ARVs

Dr. Budhoo and I visited a peripheral clinic of Nkuzane. 30 minutes of back-aching bumps in our 4 wheel drive truck brought us to the clinic, which was newly built by the Zulu King. Meters away stood one of his many palaces stocked with its own generator and fleet of cars. Right across from the new clinic parked the little box called the “old clinic.”

We came here to do two things:
1) Treat the difficult patients that the sisters were unable to treat.
2) Begin rolling out the ARV program to peripheral clinics.

For part one, the sisters only handed us six patients, which was uneventful. The rest of the patients in the queue the sisters handled by themselves.

For part two, we talked to the one VCT (voluntary counseling and testing) counselor and nursing manager about beginning the four required training ARV education courses in the clinic. Also after the Nkuzane patients with HIV have achieved six months of ARV adherence without complications at Benedictine Hospital, we wanted the patients to return to the clinic for check ups and medications. This plan anticipates the future congestion at the Benedictine ARV clinic.

Let’s Roll Out.