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  • Title: [Memisa and home care for AIDS patients in Zambia].
    Author: Reijer PJ.
    Journal: Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd; 1999 Jan 16; 143(3):162-5. PubMed ID: 10086134.
    Abstract:
    Health care in Zambia has since long been receiving support from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Memisa. Church organizations bear responsibility for a considerable part of the national health services. During the last 15 years, growing attention has been given to improvement of basic services in the villages and to recruitment and organization of groups in the community active in the field of health care. The combat against AIDS is a major focus. Many NGOs give health education on HIV and AIDS, are coaching HIV-positive individuals and are trying to organize support for AIDS patients and their relatives and relief for women and children after the death of husband or father. The community home care projects established in the urban areas of Copperbelt province in Zambia provide a decent terminal phase for AIDS patients and assist the surviving families in maintaining a certain socioeconomic level of existence. In Zambia more than 1.2 million people have been infected with HIV since the beginning of the epidemic in 1983-84, and approximately 300,000 people have developed AIDS since then. Home care for such patients has been organized either through health care institutions (involving visits once every two weeks or a month to the home by medical and nursing personnel) or through the community with outside support, mainly from a nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) such as Memisa. In 1991 a home care program for chronically ill patients was launched by the bishopric of Ndola in the province of Copperbelt. In 5 towns with 400,000-450,000 inhabitants, home care projects were initiated for these patients, who constitute more than 90% of cases of symptomatic HIV infections. Palliative care has evolved over the years toward a holistic form of care consisting of a combination of medical treatment, psychological and pastoral support, counseling and, in some cases, material assistance. The results of the home care are that the quality of the lives of terminal patients have improved, the community has fully accepted the projects, the volunteers and nurses are more alert to the symptoms of serious opportunistic infections, the treatment of tuberculosis has improved, and more openness about AIDS and HIV infection has made possible a positive life concept for many patients. The project also provides support (school fees, clothes, food for children) for the families of patients. Income-generating projects also provide sources of income--mainly for women whose income has been lost as a result of AIDS. In 1996 this project assisted approximately 6000 patients and their families.
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