-Cavet Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> -Cui Bono- JANUARY 08, 12:28 EST AIDS Overwhelms S. Africa Hospitals By ANDREW SELSKY Associated Press Writer AIDS patients in South Africa AP/Themba Hadebe [21K] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa (AP) � Doctors scribble notes into patients' folders while a young man lies nearby on a gurney, dying from AIDS-related tuberculosis. His abdomen convulses with gurgling gasps as he struggles to fill his saturated lungs. The doctors will not transfer him to a bed in the intensive care unit because of lack of space. ``He's busy dying,'' says Dr. Iwan Bekker, sweeping past the youth in Dora Nginza Hospital. ``Sometimes we have to play God.'' The AIDS epidemic is overwhelming South Africa so badly that some public hospitals are turning people away, limiting treatment and forcing doctors to make hard decisions about whom to save. Lucky to be in hospital AP/Themba Hadebe [17K] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Looking for desperately needed help from the developed world, the governments of South Africa and other African states are eagerly awaiting a speech Monday by Vice President Al Gore to the U.N. Security Council on the impact of AIDS in Africa. With an estimated 4 million South Africans � one of every 10 people � already infected with the AIDS virus, the epidemic poses a huge challenge to the country's public health system. At Hlabisa Hospital in KwaZulu-Natal Province, some patients must sleep on foam mats underneath beds holding other patients. Hospitals in the Johannesburg area are trying to stretch their budgets by limiting lab tests and releasing patients sooner. They are also training families of AIDS sufferers to care for them � and prepare for their deaths � at home. In the developed world, debates sometimes arise over whether heroic measures should keep a critically ill person alive. In state hospitals in South Africa, as in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, such expensive measures are rarely an option. ``We can't afford to spend money on people who are going to die,'' said Karen Michael, a researcher on AIDS at the University of Natal in Durban. Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is trying to recruit all sectors of society into the fight against AIDS. ``The government will never be able to cope with it alone,'' she said in a phone interview. Tshabalala-Msimang said the government is considering inviting the private sector to create a fund to help fight the epidemic. It also plans to step up its AIDS awareness campaign and the promotion of abstinence or safe sex practices. With limited resources, the government can only take limited measures. In fiscal year 1997, the government spent $3.4 billion on health care for the nation's 40.5 million people, or less than $85 a person, the statistics office said. Unless health funds are increased � and that would mean taking money away from housing, education and other strapped programs � the government can't afford costly AIDS drugs like AZT. But some people say the government must throw its resources into halting the epidemic. ``We need a 'war cabinet' for AIDS,'' said the Rev. Barry Hughes-Gibbs, an Anglican priest who runs AIDS home-care training in a black township near the capital, Pretoria. Public hospitals, which serve 86 percent of black South Africans, are on the front line in the fight against AIDS, which in sub-Saharan Africa is transmitted primarily by heterosexual sex. ``Hospitals are now stretched to capacity,'' said Michael, the AIDS researcher. ``Staffers are working chronic overtime without overtime pay, and they're having a flood of patients who are not able to look after themselves. It's pretty bleak.'' At Dora Nginza Hospital near the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth, HIV-positive babies will be admitted for treatment only once, then are restricted to outpatient care, said Bekker, the head of pediatrics. He pointed out rooms crowded with HIV-positive babies. ``We have a limited budget,'' Bekker said. ``When a baby gets bad, like with pneumonia, we won't admit it for the second time, but will tell the mother to take it home and let it die.'' It's a grim policy for Fanizwe, a young mother whose HIV-infected baby has already been admitted once for pneumonia and released. Infected with the AIDS virus herself, Fanizwe now faces the prospect of sitting in their shack, helplessly watching her baby succumb to the disease. ``If the baby gets sick again, he will be beyond my care,'' she says, cuddling the youngster. home ] us news ] world ] business ] sports ] weather ] search ] help ] Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Comments and questions AP privacy statement DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soap-boxing! 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