On the 7th of October 2006, millions of people around the world will be celebrating World Hospice and Palliative Care Day. Now in its second year, World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. The theme for this year is “Access to care for all”– highlighting the fact that everyone has a right to high quality end-of-life care but that more needs to be done to enable everyone to access it. With the advent of HIV and AIDS, attention to palliative and end-of-life issues has become an essential aspect of managing the epidemic.

Key Issues:
1. The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines palliative care as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.

2. HIV palliative care is a comprehensive package of care for people living with HIV and AIDS to manage a variety of symptoms they can experience such as pain, cough, shortness of breath, nausea, weakness, fatigue, fever and confusion. It also involves strengthening links to social support organisations, building community food stocks, providing food assistance and training to widows, orphans and vulnerable children.

3. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has transformed AIDS into a more manageable, chronic disease and this has increased opportunities for palliative care interventions. ARVs may create compliance problems when the drugs produce unpleasant side effects and advanced care planning is then required to encourage the patient to take the drugs.

4. The media can use this opportunity to raise public awareness and understanding of the needs of people living with HIV and AIDS and their families. A number of activities are lined up in the southern African region to celebrate this day. In Zimbabwe, for example, Island Hospice will use the Harare Garden Club Rose Show as an opportunity to sensitise the public on palliative care and end-of-life issues. The show which is scheduled for the 7th and 8th of October will be marked by exhibitions of roses, other colourful flowers and vegetables, photography and painting and orchids display.

Sources:
1.AIDS: Palliative Care: http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub05/JC453-PalliCare-TU_en.pdf
2.About World Hospice and Palliative Care Day: http://www.worldday.org/about_world_day.asp

For more information, contact:
1.Island Hospice Association of South Africa, Tel: 021 531 2094, Fax: 021 531 1706, Email: hpca@safrica.com
2.Gillian Chibayiwa, Island Hospice, P.O.Box A1822, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe, Tel: 263 705771/2, Email: island@mango.zw