discrepancy

My internship has been amazing. I've truly become acquainted with community healthcare. I've done intake - taking vitals and putting people in rooms, I've shadowed doctors and nurse practitioners, and I've worked with the WIC program doing finger sticks to check iron levels and also measuring heights/weights. This week, I spent a day at an HIV clinic. It was amazing to see the relative normalcy of life to HIV patients when they are able to consistently take meds to keep their viral loads down! The doctor I shadowed literally told a new patient that once her viral loads were down, having HIV would be very similar to the way we think of diabetes care in the States. Half of me rejoiced when he said that and the other half of me felt enraged. I felt the weight of the injustice that was being played out before my eyes. Our poor live in comparative luxury. I know that even in the States everyone that needs medication doesn't have access to it, but it's so unfair that HIV patients in most of the world don't have the chance that HIV patients here are given to decrease their viral loads and live an essentially normal life. What I witnessed all day was truly comparable to a diabetes clinic - almost boring in the way that everyone was well controlled and simply needed refills for their meds so that they could stay that way, but at some point in the day I realized that I was witnessing a miracle. It's truly miraculous that it's possible to overcome HIV enough to thrive. We MUST share this with the rest of the world. We cannot keep this gift in our privileged hands, we must be intentional about finding ways to reach the majority world with the treatment they need.