AIDS in Uganda - clinical and social features
Article Abstract:
The acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a major health problem in Africa. Until now, most efforts and resources have been channeled into preventing transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), while less attention has been paid to patients already suffering from AIDS. Currently, health officials in Africa are faced with the overwhelming medical care needs of AIDS patients. Uganda can be considered representative of the African experience with AIDS in many ways. However, Uganda was quicker than many countries to collaborate with the World Health Organization and to establish an AIDS Control Program. The thorough and open surveillance of AIDS cases in Uganda has led to detection of 8,000 cases, the highest number of any African nation and also one of the highest worldwide. Various characteristics of the AIDS epidemic in Africa are reviewed. One feature is that once the incidence of AIDS in a community exceeds 10 percent, high-risk groups become virtually useless in predicting who is infected; people of all ages, professions, marital and socioeconomic statuses have the disease. Tuberculosis affects many AIDS patients in Africa, primarily because tuberculosis was common before the AIDS epidemic. Some other infections that are latent in the African population and manifest in AIDS patients are syphilis, toxoplasmosis, and cytomegalovirus. In Uganda, testing for HIV infection is not routinely done because of the limited financial resources; instead AIDS is diagnosed according to clinical criteria established by the World Health Organization. Another feature of the AIDS crisis in Uganda is the reluctance of health professionals to tell persons they have AIDS; telling them is considered cruel and the cultural norm is not to discuss death and dying. These and other issues are reviewed, along with the medical care needs of African AIDS patients. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 1990
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The HIV-AIDS pandemic at 25 - The global response
Article Abstract:
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a crisis that demands a unique and truly global response to meld the resources, political power, and technical capacity of wealthy countries with the needs and capacities of developing countries. Twenty-five years into the pandemic, the global response stands at a crossroads, and AIDS funding must be used in part to strengthen fragile health care systems.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 2006
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Turning the tide on the AIDS pandemic
Article Abstract:
Former US President William J. Clinton describes his role in fighting the global AIDS epidemic in a speech delivered at the 10th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, Massachusetts in February, 2003. AIDS still devastates many poor countries that cannot afford expensive treatments. Many poor countries also lack the infrastructure to test large groups of people.
Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0028-4793
Year: 2003
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