When is HIV Counselling Necessary?

When is HIV Counselling Necessary? The first is Pre-test discussion. A discussion of the implications of HIV antibody testing should accompany any offer of the test itself. This is to ensure the principle of informed consent is understood and to assist patients to develop a realistic assessment of the risk of testing HIV antibody positive. 

This process should include accurate and up-to-date information about transmission and prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Patients should be made aware of the “window period” for the HIV test – that a period of 12 weeks since the last possible exposure to HIV should have elapsed by the time of the test. Patients may present for testing for any number of reasons, ranging from a generalised anxiety about health to the presence of HIV-related physical symptoms. 

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What is HIV Counselling?

Counselling in HIV and AIDS has become a core element in a holistic model of healthcare, in which psychological issues are recognised as integral to patient management. HIV and AIDS counselling has two general aims:
(1) the prevention of HIV transmission and (2) the support of those affected directly and indirectly by HIV. It is vital that HIV counselling should have these dual aims because the spread of HIV can be prevented by
changes in behaviour. 

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Meeting Your Child’s Nutritional Needs

Believe it or not, making sure your child eats well can be relatively simple. After weaning, a healthy diet for your baby is basically the same as a healthy diet for you. It's very important, before the age of 2 years, fats should not be restricted, so use full fat milk and yoghurts, for example but from then on there’s no reason to cook special meals for your child as long as you don’t live off takeaways and chips with everything.

Food contains calories, which supply the energy needed for growth and exercise and stop your child feeling hungry. Food also contains crucial vitamins and minerals. Among their many roles, vitamins help the body absorb other nutrients, aid growth and development, assist the body in fighting infection, and ensure organs and cells function normally.

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Tips: Take Care in the Sun (Your Child)

Everyone needs some sun exposure: The sun’s our primary trigger for vitamin D production, which helps us absorb calcium for strong, healthy bones. But most people get the vitamin D they need pretty quickly, and extended unprotected exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays can cause heatstroke, sun burn, skin damage, eye damage, and cancer. The sun’s rays are particularly dangerous.

Ultraviolet (UV) rays are the most damaging of the sun’s rays. UV rays react with a chemical called melanin in the skin. Melanin is our first defence against the sun, absorbing dangerous UV rays before they do serious damage to the body.

Melanin is found in different concentrations according to skin colour: The lighter your child’s natural skin pigment, the less melanin it contains. But both dark- and pale-skinned children need protection from UV rays because any tanning or burning causes skin damage. Unprotected sun exposure is even more dangerous for children with moles, very fair skin and hair, or a history of skin cancer. You should be especially careful about sun protection if your child has one or more of these high-risk characteristics.

Follow these tips to stay safe in the sun:

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Keeping Your Child Healthy

Being a parent is fantastic – but that doesn’t mean to say it’s easy. Caring for your little bundle of joy and making sure he or she is healthy and safe at all times is a full time job – without the holidays – and the only way you can discover how to do this is through experience.

If you want your child to eat healthily, you need to serve her a wide variety of nutritious foods for energy, growth, and development. This means giving processed and junk foods a wide berth – but it doesn’t mean not being flexible. Food isn’t worth arguing over, and if your child insists on eating curlycheesy crisps, that’s fine – as long as they don’t form her staple diet. If most of the food your child eats is nutritious, you’ll be keeping her in tip-top condition. Try doing the following to make sure that she eats well:

1. Give your child at least five helpings of fruit and vegetables a day – fresh, frozen, canned, dried, or juiced. You’re probably already aware of this important point, but there’s no harm in stressing it again. Fruit and veg contain the crucial nutrients needed to maintain a healthy digestive system, create new body tissue, fight infections, and a lotmore. Try to offer your child at least one orange and one green fruit or vegetable every day, as they are known to be particularly beneficial and may help to prevent cancer and other serious diseases. Fruit or vegetable juice only makes up one of her daily portions of fruit and vegetables, no matter how much she drinks. That’s because other goodies in the flesh are not included in juice, and digesting whole fruit and vegetables benefits her system. 

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Pregnancy and Diabetes

Gestational diabetes is characterized by glucose in tolerance leading to diabetes first detected during pregnancy. It will affect up to 14% of some high-risk. These women must be identified during prenatal care in order to optimize maternal and fetal health.

The need for pregnancy prevention or preconceptional planning should be discussed during care by the diabetologist with referral to a perinatologist for further preconceptional counseling.

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Eyes, Episcleritis and Scleritis

Episcleritis and scleritis usually present as a localised area of inflammation. The episclera lies just beneath the conjunctiva and adjacent to the tough white scleral coat of the eye. Both the sclera and episclera may become inflamed, particularly in rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune conditions, but no cause is found for most cases of episcleritis.

The patient complains of a red and sore eye that may also be tender. There may be reflex lacrimation but usually there is no discharge. Scleritis is much more painful than episcleritis. The pain of scleritis often is sufficiently severe to wake the patient at night.

There is a localised area of inflammation that is tender to the touch. The episcleral and scleral vessels are larger than the conjunctival vessels. The signs of inflammation are usually more florid in scleritis.

Any underlying cause should be identified. Episcleritis is essentially self limiting, but steroid eye drops hasten recovery and provide symptomatic relief. Scleritis is much more serious, and all patients need ophthalmological review. Serious systemic disorders need to be excluded, and
systemic immunosuppressive treatment may be required.

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