AIDS: The continuum of care in Ingwavuma

Abstract

Few people deny that the AIDS epidemic is now with us. Out of 973 clients tested by the Mosvold Hospital AIDS Team in 2002,74% were HIV positive. There are now queues outside the mortuary every Friday of relatives coming to collect bodies for burial at the weekends. The debate is "What is the function of a doctor in all of this?" Should we continue working purely as clinicians fighting opportunistic infections and providing palliative care to the growing number of incurable patients or do we need to rethink our role in the light of this epidemic which is devastating the population and changing the whole make-up of society?