| Community and home-based care Courageous HeroesTheir community-based care-givers are often called heroes and they are an inspiration. Many people live kilometers from even the nearest dirt road and so their care-givers walk up to 20km a day to reach their patients. Before the project began many patients had no access to medical care as those in advanced stages of AIDS often could not reach even the local clinic. The Role of a Community-based Care-giverLiving among the communities they serve and getting around by foot and bicycle, their care-givers are well-known and typically are approached for help by neighbours, community health workers or family when someone in their area becomes sick. They then visit the family and give advice on how to care for the sick person, subsequently visiting regularly when required. Being trained AIDS counselors and ARV adherence trainers, their presence has lead to a markedly greater uptake of HIV testing as well as the numbers of people accessing ARVs.Ingwavuma Orphan Care has 15 teams of community-based care-givers, covering 1500 square km. They are supported by two full-time nurses, a doctor and a chaplain who visit each team in turn. Its biggest funders to date are the Elton John AIDS Foundation, the EU and the Global Fund, but also supplemented by many valuable smaller contributions. The care-givers see around 500 patients each month, some of them intensively. |
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HIV and AIDS, and Nutrition
This World Health Organization document reviews current evidence on the relationship between nutrition and HIV and AIDS, as well as on the role of nutrition in HIV transmission, disease progression, morbidity, and disease management Read the full story....
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