Nepal protesters demand HIV help
By, Mark Dummett, BBC News(Kathmandu), May 10, 2007
People living with HIV and Aids are holding rallies across Nepal in protest at what they say is an inadequate government response to the pandemic.
They complain that health authorities are failing to provide care to the increasing numbers of infected people.
About 75,000 Nepalis are thought to be HIV positive.
Their numbers are growing but clinics and hospitals in more than half the country have no special provisions to care for them.
Inquiry
Protesters say there are not enough trained or competent medical staff, even though the government's HIV-Aids response programme is well funded by foreign donors.
For example, they complain that after a senior doctor was transferred from the main hospital caring for people with HIV and Aids in Kathmandu last month, the standard of treatment collapsed and many people who should still be alive today have died.
The Health Ministry has said it has launched an inquiry into these claims and is examining the protesters' other complaints.
One is that there should be more help for poor patients.
Many are women from impoverished rural communities whose husbands contracted the disease while working as migrant labourers in India.
When they returned home before dying they passed it on to their wives and in some cases their children too.
The protesters say little is done to help these widows and orphans.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6641605.stm
People living with HIV and Aids are holding rallies across Nepal in protest at what they say is an inadequate government response to the pandemic.
They complain that health authorities are failing to provide care to the increasing numbers of infected people.
About 75,000 Nepalis are thought to be HIV positive.
Their numbers are growing but clinics and hospitals in more than half the country have no special provisions to care for them.
Inquiry
Protesters say there are not enough trained or competent medical staff, even though the government's HIV-Aids response programme is well funded by foreign donors.
For example, they complain that after a senior doctor was transferred from the main hospital caring for people with HIV and Aids in Kathmandu last month, the standard of treatment collapsed and many people who should still be alive today have died.
The Health Ministry has said it has launched an inquiry into these claims and is examining the protesters' other complaints.
One is that there should be more help for poor patients.
Many are women from impoverished rural communities whose husbands contracted the disease while working as migrant labourers in India.
When they returned home before dying they passed it on to their wives and in some cases their children too.
The protesters say little is done to help these widows and orphans.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6641605.stm
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 10:15 am
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