Two times I've taken care of HIV positive patients. The first was a woman from Africa who had recently learned her (titer? do you call it?) was high enough so that she didn't not have HIV; she DID have HIV. She was holding her newborn, and she looked bewildered, lost. She was unable to breastfeed the baby because HIV can be passed along with breast milk. So what was she supposed to do with it? What does one do with a newborn when you can't breastfeed it.
The second was recently. The woman was from Zimbabwe, and her husband attended her. She was 16 weeks along, and had chorio. I had her on two antibiotics, and she had received Cytotec, to further induce the miscarriage she presented with on her admission to the ER. Some time after she delivered the little fetus, still in its sack, she said to me, she knew she was having problems two days earlier, when she began to bleed from her vagina. Now. She came into the ER later Saturday night, and when I received her Sunday morning, she had already received a dose of tylenol and her first dosages of antibiotics, I took her temperature first thing, at 7, and it was greater than 103. I say this to illustrate the fact that this lady was sick, and I am not joking. Never mind the HIV, whatever bacterial infection that it was that was inside her cloaked her like an aura; I was scared taking care of her, and washed my hands more taking care of her than maybe I ever have. She was sick at home at least two days before seeking medical attention, suffering.