 In Thyolo province, an HIV-positive woman must spend a lot of time under a mosquito net donated by MSF due to her frequent bouts of malaria. Photo © Gaël Turine |
Improving AIDS care
In Malawi, most MSF activities are focused
on improving care and services for those
living with HIV/AIDS — a population numbering
more than one million adults and
children. Although the government has
plans to scale up HIV/AIDS services, in reality,
90 percent of public health facilities
lack the capacity to offer even the most
basic health care. MSF cares for people living
with HIV/AIDS, and provides treatment
with life-extending antiretroviral (ARV)
medicines to 6,900 patients.
In the southern district of Chiradzulu, MSF
is working with local and national partners
to provide comprehensive HIV/AIDS care
through the district hospital and 10 community
health centers. Activities include
voluntary HIV testing and counseling, education
and awareness-raising and treatment
for opportunistic infections. Since
2001, MSF has provided patients with free
ARV medications.
For the past two years, an average of 200
new patients have been added to the ARV
program each month. (MSF has temporarily
halted new admissions to the program
while it develops new criteria to ensure
that the quality of care remains high amid
spiralling enrolment.) Currently 4,000
patients are receiving ARV treatment
through the Chiradzulu program.
The MSF team visits each health center in
Chiradzulu twice a month and runs training
sessions for local nurses to enable them
eventually to run these centers autonomously.
Tasks normally performed by doctors,
who are in short supply in Malawi, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, will be
delegated to nurses and health workers.
MSF launched its first HIV/AIDS program in
Malawi in 1996, in the southern district of
Thyolo, a mainly rural area where an estimated
500,000 people live. Today, that program
is implemented largely through
cooperation with local partners, ranging
from the district hospital to small community
groups. More than 2,250 people are
now receiving ARV treatment there. MSF
teams try to involve traditional medical
practitioners in AIDS-prevention and ARVtherapy
programs as well. In addition to
HIV/AIDS care, the MSF team in Thyolo
works to prevent and respond to other
health needs, including malnutrition, cholera
and malaria.
In July 2004, MSF began a new HIV/AIDS
project in the eastern part of the Dowa district
in central Malawi. The team provides
diagnosis and treatment to HIV-positive
residents of the area, including those living
in the Dzaleka refugee camp in the southeastern
part of the district. Estimates suggest
that approximately 8,500 people there
are living with HIV/AIDS, and 1,500 are in
immediate need of ARV treatment.
Operating out of one hospital and nine
health centers, the team gives medical care
to HIV-positive patients and works to
increase access to treatment. MSF plans to
enroll 60 new patients each month so that
approximately 800 people will be receiving
needed care, including ARVs, by the end of
2005. MSF is also carrying out prevention
activities throughout eastern Dowa district.
MSF has worked in Malawi since 1986.
|
)
