Something's Stirring in the Amazon Jungle: marianna, children and others

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

marianna, children and others

This is Marianna. She has one white CD4 cell left. She gave us her consent to take her photograph and publish it in order to plead the cause of HIV prevention in the Peruvian Amazon.

Marianna is now at the Lazos de Vida house in Iquitos. We share the care for her, providing her with some medicine, money for food and emotional support.

At a b-day celebration at the Lazos de Vida house: there are 7 children living with HIV at this point. Marianna (to the left) was able to get up for a couple of moments after many days of pain, fevers and sickness spent in the hammock.

La "Abuela SIDA" -- the "HIV-Granny" as she calls herself. She has been living with HIV for years. At Lazos de Vida, she takes care of the children (some have been abandoned by their parents, or orphaned).

Back in Iquitos, during our last in-house clinic, a 26-year-old patient tests HIV-positive. He has suffered from a fungal rash for two years, has genital herpes and kidney stones. The man, frustrated by the fact that the fungus and the other ailments were resistant to treatments, burned the fungus-affected areas with a battery acid three months prior to our visit. We consult him first, and then take him to the hospital to get registered to the antiretroviral program. The man is lucky: he barely manages to get his tests done before yet another Ministry of Health strike occurs to close down the hospitals. However, he is accepted to the program. I spoke to him an hour before I left Iquitos: he was calm and relatively happy as he realized that finally some healing of his run-down body would take place, and that he may begin a better life. He has seen Lupe and Victor, the couple of promoters living with HIV, and their apparent health was a reassuring sight. We will keep checking on him to make sure everything is well with his life and treatment...

Victor and Lupe are living with HIV. Active members of Lazos de Vida and trained HIV-prevention promoters, they work with us regularly in Iquitos, help counsel our new patients, give HIV-prevention lectures and are wonderful friends and human beings.

Lazos de Vida is an Iquitos association of people living with HIV we have worked with for years.

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 9, 2009 at 3:17 PM
Beautiful, moving pictures and words, Elena. Thank you for sharing. You are doing the highest of work. Your friend would be so proud and grateful to you. Love, Susan
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Patient Stories

Juan: A Patient’s Story

During an Amazon Promise clinic in the village of Jerusalen, we met a desperate, emaciated man who was holding the hand of a four-year-old boy with cutely unkempt hair. Having been sick for some time, Juan had come to the village from Iquitos in the hopes of finding some healing in traditional jungle medicine. He was a very humble man who never looked into anyone’s eyes. His son was the shyest of kids. There was tenderness between them. The AP clinic doctors could not find the source of Juan’s fatigue, but suspected that he was in the end stages of HIV/AIDS infection. We offered to help him get back to Iquitos for HIV testing.

In Iquitos, Juan tested HIV positive and broke down. We counseled him about the free antiretroviral treatment he could receive from one of the hospitals. Still, he was convinced that an HIV diagnosis meant certain death. Juan then revealed he had a wife and another child. In fact, he was not afraid to die, but he was petrified that they too might be infected. At the San Juan Health Center in Iquitos, Juan’s wife and their children tested negative, while Juan’s tests confirmed his HIV infection. Again Juan cried, but this time with relief. Nevertheless, his joy was short-lived: he now perceived himself a burden to his family, and craved death. At that point, he could hardly walk. Together with his wife, we counseled him and finally convinced him to start treatment. His wife was very strong, forgiving and caring. They decided to make it together.

Juan entered the free antiretroviral treatment program at the Hospital Regional. Because he was too ill to work, his wife took on an extra shift at her job to make ends meet.

A year later, while we were visiting the same village, an elderly woman spoke without stopping about how fat her son Juan was getting. Then one day Juan rang the bell at the Amazon Promise house in Iquitos. He walked in with muscled arms and a protruding belly, holding his youngest child in his arms and the boy with unkempt hair by the hand. Juan has a full-time job now. He looks people straight in the eye, and talks with great concern about the growing number of HIV patients he sees in the hospital where he receives his treatment. At the moment, he is training to become a volunteer HIV-prevention counselor. Welcome back to the world, Juan.

(The patient’s name has been changed for the sake of confidentiality)

The Amazing Artists

Adriana Grant
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Dave Kane
Dawna Holloway
Erin Shafkind
Evan Ellsworth Jourden
Father and Son
Fred Stivers
Genevieve Tremblay
George Kurzman
Guy P. Merrill
Hilary MacGregor
Jana Spacek
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John Rizzotto
Karen Kosoglad
Katy Lucy Wilson
Larry Naylor
Louise wackerman
Maria Jost
Marilyn Frasca
Mark Tracy
Molly Magai
Neil Vandervloed
Nicole Kistler
Rafael Gallardo
Roger Wheeler
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Art Fights HIV

(Seattle, WA) February , 2009 – "Something's Stirring in the Amazon Jungle" – at least it will be soon, if Seattle-based Elena Deem, PhD, has anything to say about it. Four years ago, Deem helped develop ¡Soy Capaz!, an HIV prevention, education and patient-care program.

¡Soy Capaz! -- or “I Can!” in Spanish, is a part of Amazon Promise, a non-profit, non-faith-based health care organization that serves the remotest parts of the Peruvian Upper Amazon basin (www.amazonpromise.org).

Since becoming involved with Amazon Promise in early 2006, Deem has made numerous trips to Peru to serve – and hopefully save lives – of the otherwise neglected people of the Amazon jungle. With little or no medical services, and the threat of AIDS and HIV encroaching from neighboring towns, the villages on the tributaries to the Amazon river would be otherwise unprotected, uneducated, and alone without the help of Amazon Promise and ¡Soy Capaz!

Though critical steps have been made to help those in need, ¡Soy Capaz! encountered setbacks in 2008 including a fire that destroyed much of the resources of Amazon Promise. To be able to continue financing the educational, preventative and patient-care aspects of ¡Soy Capaz! and to raise funds for her next vital trips to the Amazon, Deem, along with an array of volunteers and supporters are putting together an art auction titled, “Something’s Stirring in the Amazon Jungle”.

The event will be held at The Lawrimore Project on Sunday, March 29th, 2009, from 4: 30 to 8:00 p.m. Over twenty local artists will donate work that will be auctioned.

Something's Stirring in the Amazon Jungle

Soy Capaz is an Amazon Promise HIV Prevention Program