‘We need to do more to end AIDs by 2030 says Dr. Patrick Ezie

Tell us about your dream clinic
The Dream Clinic started in 2006, it has about 5,000 patients including orphans and vulnerable children accessing Anti-Retroviral (ARV) treatment from inception till date. After doing a multi-wide study, the United Nations AIDs agency rated our facilities the best in Nigeria for HIV and AIDS treatments and this is part of the reason why the UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon, was slated to visit our facility when he visited Nigeria because there were plans to replicate this model to other parts of the country.
Parts of the World AIDS Day project we are trying to carry out is to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS, involve stakeholders and also tell the public/government that HIV/AIDS is a project that lots of donors are interested in, and that the government needs to do more to help the lives of millions of Nigerians living with the virus.

How do you get the HIV positive orphans and vulnerable children you treat?
They come to us through so many ways. The orphans and vulnerable children are usually people who come to the hospital either because they have one parent that is affected with HIV and AIDS, or they themselves are affected, or they have lost both parents to HIV and AIDS.
When they come to the clinic, they already have that problem but with no one to support them. Apart from our HIV and AIDS services, they may have other issues like malaria, feeding, and schooling among others. 
But because they do not have the family structure to support them, they are not usually taken care of, so we have a lot of them within the fold of patients that we have. About 1/10 of our population comprises of orphans and vulnerable children, that is why we try as much as possible to do something for them, so as to empower them and have them on this project.

What are your interventions for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children?
Well, there are so many things we do. Sometimes when the orphans or vulnerable children come, they may come in a really bad state.  HIV treatment and care has to do with the time it is diagnosed. 
If a patient is diagnosed earlier enough and he or she is placed on drugs, there is usually no problem but when a patient comes at a very late stage of the illness, it is usually a very serious battle to save the patient’s live because there are so many opportunistic infections that comes with that. 
Adults who have been working and have some money can use it to stabilize themselves. But when orphans and vulnerable children come, especially at the last stage, they do not have the funds to take care of themselves. So most of the time the facility has to dig into its purse and bring out funds to take care of the bills of the patients until we stabilize them.
Also, sometimes because of their status and the fact that their parents are late, they do not have people taking care of their schooling and all that, sometimes, through our network we try to help them in that aspect.

How do you run the electronic management system in your clinic?
This centre is actually the only dream centre in the country. There are other centres that operate in dream protocol in Mozambique and other African countries.
 In Nigeria, this is the only centre that uses the dream protocol and that protocol is was actually developed when we went into partnership with Saint. Divido Foundation, a group of doctors in Europe that came and partnered with us and gave us that technical support. 
So all our systems run in an electronic management system which means that  from when a patient is seen, everything is posted into an online system that the doctor can see, so even if one returns 20 years after, we have the records of all that on our reference system. Even people in Europe can see the dating and know if we are in line, and we also get technical support to manage some very difficult patients from them as well.

What support do you get in funding the clinic?
Most of the support we get in funding the clinic for HIV/AIDs comes from partner organizations. Transcorp supports us through feeding, we also get support from companies that donate generators. They have also been very helpful in terms of drugs.

From your interaction with the people coming to the clinic for HIV test, what do you think can be done to improve their lives?
A lot can be done to improve their lives. The government needs to take a front step, because some of the organizations supporting us are pulling away. In fact, it is rumoured that by next year HIV patients would need to buy drugs for themselves. 
This is because they are complaining that the government is not supporting as much as it should, and if the government can come in and prevent these donors from withdrawing, that would strengthen the care of people living with HIV/AIDS. The government needs to be much more forward about having a definite structure and plans to to carter for the needs of this people.

The theme of this year’s World AIDS Day is: “Getting to zero: Ending AIDs by 2030”. As an expert in this field, do you think that’s possible?
Well, the government in its own way is trying. All we are saying is that they need to put in more efforts. It may not be possible for us to get AIDS to zero, but with lots of awareness and continuous reminders going on, we are trying to see how government and even the people of Nigeria can know that this is the time to get tested. 
In the future, there may not be donor support to to pay for one’s drugs and all that. Now, if you are tested and you are positive, there are facilities like ours spread across the country that provides the same service, where you can access drugs free of charge and live a very fulfilled life. So we need to do more in that regard.