ESMERALDA
Twenty-four year old Esmeralda Pierre has three beautiful, dimple-cheeked children. She was already eight months pregnant with her youngest when she found out she was HIV positive. Later, I accompanied Esmeralda to Altagracia, the public women’s hospital in Santo Domingo to enroll in the national program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. As we got off the bus, she tightly clenched my arm—this was the first time she had been to the capital and she was terrified. We spent the whole day in the hot, crowded hospital filling out paper work, getting blood tests, and paying for lab and registration fees. There were repeated jokes throughout the day made by program staff about her being Haitian (she is a black Dominican with Haitian roots). A month later, we returned to the Altagracia hospital where she spent a week in the ward waiting for a Caesarian while her nervous mother spent sleepless nights on a plastic chair in the reception room. At last, on June 28th she gave birth to a healthy boy. Esmeralda and her son both received a dose of the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine and her new baby Max is drinking infant formula provided by the government. Esmeralda must search for water in a stream near her house, but she conscientiously cleans the bottles and boils water for the milk. Little Max is growing fast and so far has had no health problems. Because of these interventions, the chance of Max becoming HIV positive is now very low. With the help of the AIDS Patient Fund, we were able to pay for Esmeralda’s transportation costs and accompaniment to Altagracia as well as food for her during her hospital stay and the hospital’s registration fees.