Children living with HIV/AIDS in Uganda have a chance to receive free comprehensive dental treatment, courtesy of a visiting 29-member pediatric dental team from the US. They treat clients of the centre from the surrounding community, orphanages, TASO chapters and other HIV-child-based centres.
Dr Juliet Nabanja, head of the Mildmay dental clinic says dental hygiene is very important because it can lead to drug adherence, which significantly affects the lifespan of people living with HIV/AIDS, especially children.
“If the mouth is sick, they will not eat well. This leads to malnutrition. They will not take drugs and HIV minus drugs is risky,” Nabanja says. She says HIV-positive children need dental care more than adults because they take sugar-based treatments like syrup.
“Some of these children are too sick or weak to observe dental hygiene. Some of them do not have caretakers or the caretakers are too old to pay attention to such issues,” she says.
