Psychosocial Support Essential in Promoting Right to Health for Young People Living with HIV in Malawi.

Imagine randomly deciding to take the HIV test and being diagnosed HIV positive. Think about the thousands of thoughts and regression models that would run in your mind to establish the correlation of the experiences the journey of life has taken you and the moment that just came to being. You had lived a modest and prayerful life not deserving this moment. You want to question your parents but can’t seem to find a direct line connecting to the land of no return, only to be told by your relatives that they suspect them to also have had what you have. You think this is the end of life but you hear a kind voice saying, “It’s going to be alright!” In your disconnect, the health personnel at the clinic tells you that you are not alone and if you start and stay on Anti-Retroviral Treatment you can still enjoy life like anybody else [enjoy a long and  healthy life…. They say you are going to be connected to a group of other young people also living positively with HIV. You don’t believe it but you take the referral letter anyway and hope to try out for the group meeting and decide on the next step of your life from there! This is what young people I interacted with described their experience finding out about their HIV status.  

 It is estimated that 1,030,400 people (2016, Spectrum) are living with HIV in Malawi.  Most of the times we think that the majority of the people living with HIV have gotten it from sexual intercourse. However, there are young people who get infected by HIV from their parents or blood transfusion. Imagine how hard it is to understand this new turn of events and embrace a new order of life. To know how important your compliance to drinking your dosage daily. To take serious charge of your health early and not because of diseases associated with old age. The complexity of this, one can only imagine…

Today the 1^st of December, 2017, is World AIDS Day which marks a great moment to reflect on Young People Living with HIV. The global theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is “The Right to Health” but Malawi has localized the theme to “The Right to Health: Access to Quality HIV Prevention and Treatment for All.” This is to emphasize the importance of the need to ensure expanded access to life-saving medicines, expanded health systems and increased access to acceptable and quality health and social protection services, without discrimination or coercion. The rights-based approach provides everyone with the right to realize the highest attainable standard of health without discrimination or stigma. 

It is universally recognized that when one enjoys their right, they can have power to live their life productively. While some people may be forthcoming to demand their rights, I believe that some people especially Young People Living with HIV will continually require support, mostly psycho-social, to fully access their right to health. The World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/hiv/topics/psychosocial/support/en/) states that with adequate support, people living with HIV are more likely to be able to respond adequately to the stress of being infected and are less likely to develop serious mental health problems. The journey to stay on ART starts with one accepting their status and this is not easy without support from health personnel, family and friends.

I am privileged to have had a chance to see how peer support, counselling and life-coaching programs are key to attainment of the right to health for Young People Living with HIV at Baylor College of Medicine-Children’s Foundation. A simple day of fun playing football or board games, memorizing ART names and reminding each other of the importance of staying on ART makes a huge difference in reminding children and young people living with HIV that as long as they continue taking their ART they can still live life large like anybody else! Through my volunteer work as a mentor at the foundation, I have had the opportunity to meet very ambitious and energetic girls and boys who are not letting their status impede them from reaching their dreams and I believe this is because of the support they get from psycho-social programs like those being offered by Baylor College of Medicine, Lighthouse, Partners in Health, Dignitas International, District Hospitals and other development partners.

In conclusion, it is great to note that Malawi has registered great strides in the HIV fight. Between the years 2000 and 2017, new annual HIV infections among adults fell by over 50 % from 65000 to 30,000. A decline in new infections among children under 15 years old from 27000 to 4000 – a decline of 87 %. This has led to adoption of the 90:90:90 campaign which aims to have 90 percent of all PLHIV know their HIV status; 90 percent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection receiving sustained ART; and 90 percent of all people receiving ART having viral suppression. I believe that the success of this will also be dependent on continued investments in psycho-social support programs for Young People Living with HIV. We can also be part of this support by being supportive of those affected by HIV and calling out all forms of stigma in our schools, organizations and communities