HIV Clinic

In Santa Rosa, most patients who are HIV positive receive care from a family medicine doctor. This is very different from the way HIV is taught to medical students. As a medical student, I think of HIV as end-stage AIDS: pneumocystis pneumonia, candida infection, CNS lymphoma, Kaposi's. But really, HIV is a chronic illness. People live for decades managing this disease, and the care falls to the family physician. I got to spend some time in the HIV clinic at Santa Rosa and I had a thoroughly good experience. Although the patients were HIV positive, they were seeing a family doc and came with complaints as diverse as arthritis to disability forms to routine check-up. The doctor did address HIV related issues such as immunizations and lipids (side effect of protease inhibitors), but much of the visit focused on health concerns entirely unrelated. So it made me think a bit about the benefits and consequences of having an HIV clinic addressing primary care needs. It also helped me put HIV into the context of primary care.