FHSSA Marks World AIDS Day With Release Of Palliative Care Guide

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Also Included In: Palliative Care / Hospice Care
Article Date: 30 Nov 2006 - 0:00 PDT

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In recognition of World AIDS Day, December 1, the Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa has released A Guide to Supportive and Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.

A Guide to Supportive and Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa takes an African perspective in addressing the many aspects of palliative care that are key in caring for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Palliative care provides holistic, interdisciplinary care for seriously ill persons and their caregivers -- from diagnosis through bereavement.

Last year, 520,000 children died of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated two million people will die from HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa this year. The need for palliative care to alleviate suffering and care for those living with HIV/AIDS is overwhelming.

World AIDS Day provides a global opportunity to educate others and increase awareness. FHSSA hopes the release of the Guide will offer support and hope.

"There is a crying humanitarian need for palliative care, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa," said Phil DiSorbo, FHSSA executive director. "Availability of the Guide will put valuable information in the hands of healthcare workers caring for people living with HIV."

The Guide covers not only medical treatment, symptom management, and psychosocial/spiritual care, but also traditional care and social issues that are part of the HIV Pandemic in Africa.

The Guide was adapted from the 2003 edition of A Clinical Guide to Supportive and Palliative Care for HIV/AIDS (http://hab.hrsa.gov). Development of the African version was funded by the U.S. Government through the HIV/AIDS Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration and NHPCO.

Three years in the making, the project paired healthcare writers and editors in the U.S. with healthcare providers in sub-Saharan Africa.

FHSSA and NHPCO are working collaboratively with the African Palliative Care Association to make the Guide available to as wide an audience as possible. In addition to the online version, CD-ROMS will be distributed. A limited number of print copies will be made available by APCA to those in resource poor communities.

To learn more about FHSSA and support its work, visit http://www.fhssa.org.

Foundation for Hospices in Sub-Saharan Africa
http://www.fhssa.org

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