Questions in a pregnancy health history
If you cannot find which treatment is recommended in your area, you can
give this combination of medicine that works everywhere and is safe after the first
3 months of pregnancy.
To treat malaria after the 3rd month of pregnancy
• give 300 mg artesunate (artemisinin) �����������������������by mouth, once a day
for 7 days
and
• give 600 mg clindamycin ���������������������������������������������������by mouth, 2 times a day for 7 days
There is now a rapid test for malaria. In many places, midwives are being trained
to use it to know quickly who should be receiving treatment.
HIV and AIDS
AIDS is an illness that develops when a person cannot fight infections. AIDS is
caused by a tiny virus (a type of germ) called HIV. A person can have HIV for many
years before showing any signs of illness. But eventually HIV makes it difficult for
the person to fight infections, and the person will start to have health problems.
When a person with HIV is ill more and more, and illnesses become more difficult
to treat, the person has AIDS. Medicines and good nutrition can help people fight
infections caused by HIV and allow them to live long and productive lives. There is
no cure for HIV, however.
How HIV spreads
HIV lives in the body fluids of people who are infected with HIV: blood, semen,
wetness from the vagina, and breast milk. The virus spreads when those fluids get
into the body of another person. This means that HIV can be spread by:
sex with someone who
has HIV, if the person
does not use condoms.
unsterile needles
or tools that
pierce or
cut the
skin.
infected blood that
gets into cuts or an
open wound of
another person.
an infected mother
to her baby, during
pregnancy, birth, or
breastfeeding.
In places where blood has not been tested for HIV, people have also been
infected with HIV from blood transfusions.
It is impossible to know by looking at someone whether he or she has HIV.
People can take a blood test for HIV, but without this most people do not know
they have HIV until they are very sick. Their HIV can spread at any time though.
For this reason, it is important for everyone to protect themselves from HIV by
practicing safer sex, using condoms consistently and correctly (see page 302) and
by sterilizing tools and equipment (see page 59).
A Book for Midwives (2010)
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