Onyango CG; International Conference on AIDS.
Int Conf AIDS. 1998; 12: 690 (abstract no. 33513).
East African Standard Newspapers, Kenya.
ISSUE: The HIV/AIDS cases accounts for sixty percent of patients admitted it medical wards both at district and provincial levels. New infections are happening at an unprecedented rate as those already infected progress to AIDS. PROJECT: Given the rate at which new HIV infections are occurring and deaths related to the same, we felt there is need to conduct a research study on the same. The study which we conducted last year was sponsored entirely by my organisation, East African Standard Newspapers. We spoke to experts, researchers, people living with the AIDS causing virus and those who have lost relatives to the disease. The research study also involved a tour of all the district and provincial hospitals in the country. We interviewed clinicians, paramedics and patients in these hospitals suffering from AIDS related opportunistic infections. The clinicians talked about AIDS related diseases seen in patients disclosing that Tuberculosis and diarrhoea resistant to therapy was a major problem. RESULTS: Research on 12 hospitals five of them provincial and seven district hospitals established that doctors are spending a better part of their time attending to patients afflicted with the virus at the expense of patients suffering from treatable diseases. LESSONS LEARNT: Since our HIV/AIDS stories were published in July and December last year, we have received a number of inquiries for more information about the disease and doctors we interviewed. This means that journalists can play a pivotal role in addressing the AIDS pandemic and therefore need to collaborate with experts.
Publication Types:
Keywords:
- AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections
- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome
- Communication
- HIV Infections
- HIV Seropositivity
- Humans
- Mass Media
- Newspapers
- Organizations
- Research
- Virus Diseases
Other ID:
UI: 102230376
From Meeting Abstracts