Nurses and clinical officers know exactly when antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS should be started for a patient.
Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Human Resources for Health suggest that this should ease the strain on overstretched doctors in sub-Saharan Africa and thereby help increase access to antiretroviral therapy, particularly in rural areas.
AIDS/HIV - Health Education
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Ashwin Vasan, from the University of Michigan and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, worked with a team of researchers in 12 Ugandan clinics to assess the degree of agreement between NPCs' decisions and those made by fully trained doctors. He said, "Nurses and clinical officers showed moderate to almost perfect agreement with physicians in their final ART recommendations. Considering that the scarcity of physicians in sub-Saharan Africa is constraining access to HIV treatment, particularly in rural clinics staffed only by NPCs, our results could lead to immediate benefits with respect to ART scale-up and decentralization."
This is the first study, either in industrialized or developing countries, to compare clinical decision-making between health care worker cadres in their prescription of ART. It offers the first evidence to support increased investment in task-shifting and training of NPCs to deliver therapy in rural primary care settings. Speaking about the potential implications of this finding, Vasan said, "Non-physician clinicians at primary care clinics should be trained, supported, and empowered to deliver antiretroviral therapy independently, with the support - but not necessarily the full-time presence - of a physician. As this a pilot, it is important to study this question further, but in the meantime programs should begin providing the necessary training, post-training support and clinical mentoring to NPCs to provide HIV/AIDS care and treatment. This will fill an important gap, particularly in rural areas, where physicians are relatively scarce, and yet where the majority of the poor reside."
Source: Eurekalert
SAV
Source: Eurekalert
SAV
AIDS and Pregnancy
The Acquired immune deficiency syndrome is brought about by the deadly human immunodeficiency virus. In the USA alone an estimate of 120,000 - 160,000 women are HIV- infected.
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 AIDS / HIV - TreatmentEncyclopedia section of medindia explains in brief about the treatment for AIDS/HIV | Advertisement
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AIDS/HIV - Common Opportunistic Infections
Kaposi sarcoma develops below the skin surfaces or in mucous membranes of mouth, nose or anus and appears as lumps
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