Matron calls for more support for children with HIV/AIDS

A test to detect drug-resistant HIV strains in patients could allow more effective treatment of the virus.
It is more sensitive than existing methods, meaning resistant viruses can be detected at very low levels in patients' blood.
This could allow doctors to give patients the most appropriate treatment earlier than is currently possible.
The test, developed by Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina, is reported in the journal Nature Methods.
The HIV genes mutate very quickly so that most people infected with HIV have many different forms of the virus in their bodies.
In some cases the mutated strains can become resistant to HIV drugs, making treatment ineffective.
Professor Feng Gao, who helped develop the new test, or assay, said: "Which resistant viruses are at hand can have important implications for the successful treatment of that patient."
He said there are already tests available to test for drug-resistant strains in patients, but these are time consuming and can only detect resistant strains when they are present at high levels in the patient's bloodstream.
If the new test is developed for clinical use as Professor Gao hopes, it would enable such strains, even if present at only low levels, to be identified quickly in patients.
They could then be treated with the most appropriate drugs from a very early stage to prevent drug resistant virus particles building up.
Roger Pebody, treatment specialist for the Terrence Higgins Trust, said: "Current tests for resistance to HIV drugs are expensive and hard to interpret.
"This means that only one in three people are offered them, despite guidelines encouraging their use.
"If this research leads to a simpler and more easily used resistance test, it will improve treatment outcomes for people living with HIV."
Professor Gao said the test may also be useful in helping researchers to understand the process of resistance development in patients, as it is not yet clear which combinations of virus strains patients need to carry to develop significant drug resistance.
He said: "Our assay can detect all types of drug resistant strains, giving a more complete picture than other individual tests, from one blood sample."
"We can monitor drug resistance over time, for example which resistant strains appear first, second, third etc. [This] gives a lot of information on the dynamics of how resistance actually works."
He added that the test might eventually be useful in detecting mutations conferring drug resistance to agents causing other diseases such as hepatitis B, hepatitis C and tuberculosis.
The Matron of the Port Harcourt's Children home, Borikiri, Mrs. Tonye Tangbei, has called for more public support for children born with HIV virus and those orphaned by HIV/AIDS.
Tangbei made the call on Friday when members of the Executive of Rivers State Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) visited the home as part of the New Year tour of homes that cater for Children with special needs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that some of the homes include the home that caters for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, abandoned babies and missing children who were
picked up by the home, children infected with HIV virus as well as mentally deranged children.
Tangbei said that the task of caring for the children was highly challenging and demands constant love and care for
the children with special needs.
She said that some of the children with HIV virus has
already been introduced to anti retroviral drugs (ARV) and were under close observation.
The co-ordinator commended the effort of some philanthropic organizations and individuals such as the Catholic Dioceses of Port Harcourt and other bodies for their support.
The state PDP chairman, Prince Uche Secondous, who was represented by the state PDP Director of research, Dr. Sokonte Davis, commended the administrator of the home and also pledged more support expecially problems that needed urgent solution.