South Africa: Hospitals Are Overwhelmed By Dying Aids Patients, As People Delay Getting Help for HIV
By, Anso Thom, Kerry Cullinan & Khopotso Bodibe, Health-e, November 27, 2006
The elderly woman, her thinning grey hair swept into a tiny ponytail, kicks her feet under the blue hospital blanket and lets out a long moan. She rocks her head from side to side and wails quietly, before turning onto her side.
The nurses stoically continue the morning briefing, a ritual that happens just after 7am every day at the medical ward of GJ Jooste Hospital in Cape Town.
Shortly after 7.30am, two nursing assistants are no longer able to ignore the woman's distress and wander over and start straightening the bed linen.
"Move your body up," a large nurse with flashy gold spectacles orders.
Just before eight, the patient keels over the side of the bed and crumples to the floor, her arms outstretched. A young woman in an adjoining bed shrieks and places her hand over her mouth.
Within seconds, two doctors rush over and pick her up by her arms and legs. A nurse rips the pink curtains shut around the bed. A few nursing assistants peer through a gap as three doctors try to resuscitate the woman.
"No, she's dead," a staff nurse tells her colleague and wanders off.
One of the doctors runs to an adjoining ward to fetch a defibrillator machine. The bed springs squeak as a tall doctor rocks up and down, applying pressure to the woman's lifeless chest. Another doctor pumps a bag attached to the patient's mouth.
A professional nurse, a few steps away hardly glances at the commotion, stoically chewing gum while restocking the drug trolley.
At 8.05am the commotion comes to an abrupt end and the patient in bed 23 is declared dead, another addition to South Africa's Aids statistics.
By 8.30am her body is washed, taped up in plastic and taken to the morgue. The only remaining sign that she was ever there is a see-through plastic bag containing a box of Corn Flakes, a pair of dainty black moccasins and a brown blanket.
Despite government's introduction of antiretroviral drugs in 2004 to contain HIV in those already infected, thousands of people are still dying of AIDS-related illnesses, and hospitals from Cape Town to Mussina are struggling to deal with the increased load.
Last year, an estimated 320 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in South Africa.
Half-a-million people are estimated to be sick enough to need antiretroviral (ARV) drugs but slightly less than half this number is getting ARVs.
The impact of AIDS can be seen on the country's mortality figures, with a 79% increase in all deaths over the past seven years (1997 to 2004) and a 161% increase in people aged 20 to 49, according to Statistics SA. More people aged between 30 and 34 are dying than in any other age group (58 000 in 2004, in comparison to almost 19 000 seven years before).
"The antiretroviral rollout is not yet at a level where it has significantly altered HIV-related admissions and fatalities at hospitals,"says Professor Helen Schneider of Wits University's Centre for Health Policy.
In addition, say hospital doctors, people with HIV are only seeking help when they are already very sick and it is difficult to treat them.
"We are overwhelmed by medical patients. We used to admit between 10 and 15 medical patients on a daily basis. Now that number has gone up to 40 to 50 patients per day. And most of these patients have HIV-related complications," says Dr George Abraham, acting senior clinical manager of Natalspruit Hospital.
The day before Health-e visited Natalspruit, seven people had died in the 734-bed hospital of AIDS-related illnesses.
Up to 60% of all patients in paediatric and adult medical wards countrywide have HIV-related conditions, according to researchers.
But hospitals in areas with high HIV rates are taking even more strain:
90% of children and 80% of adult medical patients at Stanger Hospital on KwaZulu-Natal's north coast are HIV positive, and 30% of male medical patients die.
Three-quarters of the male patients and 70% of female patients who died in the medical ward of Mseleni Hospital in far northern KZN over the past three months suffered from AIDS-related illnesses.
About three-quarters of the patients in the 135 medical beds at Durban's Addington Hospital have HIV-related illnesses.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200611271268.html
The elderly woman, her thinning grey hair swept into a tiny ponytail, kicks her feet under the blue hospital blanket and lets out a long moan. She rocks her head from side to side and wails quietly, before turning onto her side.
The nurses stoically continue the morning briefing, a ritual that happens just after 7am every day at the medical ward of GJ Jooste Hospital in Cape Town.
Shortly after 7.30am, two nursing assistants are no longer able to ignore the woman's distress and wander over and start straightening the bed linen.
"Move your body up," a large nurse with flashy gold spectacles orders.
Just before eight, the patient keels over the side of the bed and crumples to the floor, her arms outstretched. A young woman in an adjoining bed shrieks and places her hand over her mouth.
Within seconds, two doctors rush over and pick her up by her arms and legs. A nurse rips the pink curtains shut around the bed. A few nursing assistants peer through a gap as three doctors try to resuscitate the woman.
"No, she's dead," a staff nurse tells her colleague and wanders off.
One of the doctors runs to an adjoining ward to fetch a defibrillator machine. The bed springs squeak as a tall doctor rocks up and down, applying pressure to the woman's lifeless chest. Another doctor pumps a bag attached to the patient's mouth.
A professional nurse, a few steps away hardly glances at the commotion, stoically chewing gum while restocking the drug trolley.
At 8.05am the commotion comes to an abrupt end and the patient in bed 23 is declared dead, another addition to South Africa's Aids statistics.
By 8.30am her body is washed, taped up in plastic and taken to the morgue. The only remaining sign that she was ever there is a see-through plastic bag containing a box of Corn Flakes, a pair of dainty black moccasins and a brown blanket.
Despite government's introduction of antiretroviral drugs in 2004 to contain HIV in those already infected, thousands of people are still dying of AIDS-related illnesses, and hospitals from Cape Town to Mussina are struggling to deal with the increased load.
Last year, an estimated 320 000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in South Africa.
Half-a-million people are estimated to be sick enough to need antiretroviral (ARV) drugs but slightly less than half this number is getting ARVs.
The impact of AIDS can be seen on the country's mortality figures, with a 79% increase in all deaths over the past seven years (1997 to 2004) and a 161% increase in people aged 20 to 49, according to Statistics SA. More people aged between 30 and 34 are dying than in any other age group (58 000 in 2004, in comparison to almost 19 000 seven years before).
"The antiretroviral rollout is not yet at a level where it has significantly altered HIV-related admissions and fatalities at hospitals,"says Professor Helen Schneider of Wits University's Centre for Health Policy.
In addition, say hospital doctors, people with HIV are only seeking help when they are already very sick and it is difficult to treat them.
"We are overwhelmed by medical patients. We used to admit between 10 and 15 medical patients on a daily basis. Now that number has gone up to 40 to 50 patients per day. And most of these patients have HIV-related complications," says Dr George Abraham, acting senior clinical manager of Natalspruit Hospital.
The day before Health-e visited Natalspruit, seven people had died in the 734-bed hospital of AIDS-related illnesses.
Up to 60% of all patients in paediatric and adult medical wards countrywide have HIV-related conditions, according to researchers.
But hospitals in areas with high HIV rates are taking even more strain:
90% of children and 80% of adult medical patients at Stanger Hospital on KwaZulu-Natal's north coast are HIV positive, and 30% of male medical patients die.
Three-quarters of the male patients and 70% of female patients who died in the medical ward of Mseleni Hospital in far northern KZN over the past three months suffered from AIDS-related illnesses.
About three-quarters of the patients in the 135 medical beds at Durban's Addington Hospital have HIV-related illnesses.
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200611271268.html
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 1:23 pm
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