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HOSPITALS CRIPPLED
Study reveals 46% of patients have AIDS
The Independent, January 31, 2004
Nearly half of all patients in state hospitals are HIV-positive, a secret
study for the Health Department has found. This was among the alarming
findings in a report entitled “The impact of HIV/AIDS on the health
sector”, published last year, but kept under wraps.
The report, leaked to Independent Newspapers, was based on an in-depth
study during 2002 under the direction of Dr. Olive Shisana, executive
director of the Human Sciences Research Council’s programme on the
social aspects of HIV/AIDS.
Some of the report’s findings were discussed at last year’s
national AIDS conference, but so far the government has refused to release
the full 175-page report.
The research shows the need for massive capacity building in the health
sector, where AIDS has begun to consume the bulk of resources. It found
that AIDS patients had started “crowding out” other patients
from hospitals as the impact of HIV/AIDS increasingly took its toll on
health workers and health facilities.
In public hospitals, about 46% of patients were HIV-positive, in line
with other countries where the epidemic had progressed, such as Uganda
and Thailand.
Altogether, 28% of patients in public and private health care facilities
were HIV-positive, with the free State showing the highest levels at nearly
38%. The research was concentrated mainly in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, the Free
State, Mpumalanga and the North West. Patients were asked for their consent
to be tested and whether they wanted to know the results.
Objectives of the study included ascertaining the scope of HIV/AIDS among
health workers and patients in the health care system, and projecting
how many would die and what the AIDS patient load on health facilities
would be.
“The finding that almost half of the patients admitted to hospital
are HIV-infected demonstrates the massive increase in the burden placed
on health care facilities,” the report stated, adding that meant
almost half of the normal number of beds was no longer available for other
patients. By 2007 the trend forecasts a 40%-45% increase of AIDS patients
in the health care system, “as more people seek treatment, testing
and counseling”.
In addition, people who were HIV positive tended to stay in hospital longer
– an average of 13.7 days, compared with 8.2 days for non-HIV patients.
The report also warned the government to train more nurses because up
to 16% of health workers were likely to die from AIDS between 2002 and
2007, particularly if they did not get anti-retroviral treatment. Nearly
29% of all deaths of health workers were attributable to AIDS.
More and more health workers infected with the HIV virus are also having
to work harder than before to meet the extra demands of AIDS patients,
which included counseling for patients and their families.
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