Team PATA

Newsletters

May 2006. Vol. 1 Issue 3.

Contents

• Gearing up for PATA 2006 Conference
• PATA Steering Committee in short
• World health workers crisis under spotlight
• HIV/AIDS as instigator for health care worker exits
• Mafikeng Provincial Hospital carries good work into 2006
• Synergie Pour l’Enfance – Senegal’s strides ahead
• Personality focus

Looking ahead to PATA conference 2006

PATA 2005 surpassed all expectations; it helped turn a vision into a practical plan of action which is already being implemented. The answer to effective paediatric HIV/AIDS treatment clearly lies in an inter-disciplinary response based on a holistic approach to care of the child, family and community.

To bring about real change in the way we respond to the AIDS pandemic and to give more children the lifesaving treatment they need, healthcare professionals from different disciplines have to be involved to create workable solutions together.

The Conference was the first such team effort on the African continent. Unlike other conferences that often focus solely on the technological or medical side of treating HIV – this conference brought together treatment teams – each comprising a nurse, pharmacist,  counsellor and physician - to discuss their different challenges, seeking firstly common ground, recommending best practice and then finding solutions for every team’s unique problems and issues.

PATA 2006 will build on the momentum created at PATA 2005 with new teams joining from different African countries. We will also focus on those issues that you consider most pressing such as disclosure and patient support, social entrepreneurship and self-help for local communities.

The Conference is scheduled to take place from November 27 to December 1 in Nairobi, Kenya. And we are currently seeking co-sponsors for this special conference. We will update you on the programme and more in the coming newsletter, so keep an eye out for the next issue!

In the meantime, if you have any comments or if you are able to support
PATA 2006 in any way, please get in touch with us today
- info@teampata.org.

PATA Steering Committee in short
 
The Steering Committee will guide PATA’s strategy in meeting the organisation’s aims and objectives.
 
The members of this Steering Committee are: David Altschuler, Jennifer Altschuler, Stephen Rollnick, Henry Barigye, Sara Stulac, James Nuttall, Minette Coetzee, Paul Roux, Gertrude Guveya, Telahun Teka and Shaffiq Essajee.
 
We will be running the thoughts and visions of PATA of these members in future editions of this newsletter.


World health workers crisis under spotlight
 
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is especially sub-Saharan Africa which has a severe shortage of health workers.
 
Despite having 11% of the world’s population and a massive 24% share of the global burden of disease, the region is drastically short of human resources with only 3% of the world’s health workers. According to the WHO, “thirty-six countries in Africa are confronting critical shortages, meaning they have fewer than 2.3 doctors, nurses and midwives per 1000 people.”
 
Such shortages leave populations at the mercy of otherwise preventable diseases as even the most basic, life-saving services are lacking.
 
The WHO also ominously warns that “without prompt action, the shortage will worsen.”
 
One of the reasons for this shortage is that the demand for health workers in developed countries have grown as their ageing populations grow in number. Drawn by higher salaries than those they can draw at home, health care workers from developing countries leave their home countries to earn money in wealthier countries.
 
The problem can be addressed by investing more money in the training and support of health workers and to have more funds available when they enter the workforce in order to prevent them from going abroad. To accommodate such extra expenditure on the estimated extra four million health care workers needed to fill the gap, the WHO says health budgets will have to increase “by at least US$10 per person per year.”
 
For such extra funds, help from international donors will be necessary. The WHO has urged governments to prioritise the needs of their health workforce and to ensure that corresponding national management plans are in place.

On April 7, we celebrated World Health Day. This year’s theme was Health Care Workers under the slogan ‘Working Together For Health’. We highlight the 2006 World Health Report in order to recognise and applaud all the work you as health professionals are doing in the field of paediatric AIDS. Let’s continue to make a difference in the coming year!

Click here to read more at the World Health Organisation Website.


HIV/AIDS as instigator for health care worker exits
 
According to the 2006 World Health Report, several Southern African countries cite death from HIV/AIDS as the “largest cause of worker exits from the workforce.”
 
The resultant understaffed health facilities are frequently overwhelmed by patients (many with HIV/AIDS) and do not have proper means of treatment. “These working conditions,” the report continues, “fuel low morale, burn-out and absenteeism. In light of this fact, efforts are now under way to address occupational health and safety risks through the prevention of needle-stick injuries, post-exposure prophylaxis, and increasing the supplies of protective equipment.”
 
In 2005, the International Labour Organisation and WHO accepted joint guidelines designed to help health workers in the HIV/AIDS field the world over stay healthy.
 
According to the report, very few countries (Swaziland and Zambia are cited) have programmes in place to “counsel, support and treat” health care workers who have been exposed to HIV.
 
Such programmes need to be introduced in other countries – fast.
 
For the full 2006 World Health Report, click here.


Mafikeng Provincial Hospital carries good work into 2006
 
The Mafikeng Provincial Hospital (MPH) in Northwest Province, South Africa, opened its Paediatric ART Clinic in October 2005 and it is currently operational twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays.
 
The clinic - staffed by a paediatrician, a senior medical officer, a counsellor, a chief professional nurse, an enrolled nursing assistant, a pharmacist and a social worker – currently assesses 85 patients, 26 of whom have been initiated on treatment.
 
According to Glenrose Kraai and Mavis Jey from MPH, this is the only site in the region that provides ART to children. Staff in other sub-districts of the region have not yet been able to make provision for the HIV management of children, but MPH is planning vital in-service training for such staff.
 
MPH would like to renovate their clinic by providing partitioning and air conditioners and would also like to purchase a car with which they can make home visits. Such home visits have been impossible because of logistical difficulties.
 
Other priorities on their wish-list drawn up in Cape Town in December at the 2005 PATA Conference included toys and child friendly items, a better electronic administration management system, water coolers and more staff.
 
“The PATA Conference has however been beneficial to the team,” says Kraai and Jey, “as they are (now) confident in managing and monitoring these patients.”
 
“(They) are able to pre-empt some of the problems that might arise with their patients, so that they can address them promptly. There are no major problems experienced so far.”


Synergie Pour l’Enfance – Senegal’s strides ahead
 
“Synergie Pour l’Enfance (Synergy for Childhood) is a non-profit community-based organization founded in 1996 by a group of volunteers united around a common belief: the child is the base of integrated and sustainable development of the community.”
 
To this opening paragraph of Synergie Pour l’Enfance’s mission statement, we can all relate. Based in Senegal, Synergy aims to improve the lives of Sengalese children “infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.”
 
Consisting of 30 members, the Synergy team comprises social workers, activists living with HIV, teachers, health care professionals and a large number of volunteers. Full time employees work from the anonymous Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centre (VCT) – started in March 2003 - in Guediawaye or in the care unit in the Roi Baudouin Hospital in the same town.
 
“The challenge Synergy is trying to overcome,” says Dr Ngagne Mbaye, president of Synergy, “relates to the continuum of care for children living with HIV, from home to hospital, at all stages of the disease.”
 
“The goal is to provide an integrated package of medical care, nutritional assistance, access to education, psychological support and preservation of family integrity. It’s the reason why we have a special program, Children’s Comprehensive Care Initiative (3 CI).”
 
Synergy was started without external support but has always relied on a team of dedicated volunteers. Today, it remains “the primary reference organization for community based structures working in the prevention of MTCT and the provision of out-based medical care to HIV/AIDS infected or affected children and mothers.”
 
Besides working closely with a variety of donor’s, NGOs and government programmes, Synergy cites the “professional capacity and commitment of its members” as their most valued resource.
 
Says Dr Mbaye: “It is important to highlight our philosophy: ‘Even in the hardest circumstances, it remains possible to do something, and he who does not start, cannot continue.’”
 
For more information, contact Dr Ngagne Mbaye at ngagne@sentoo.sn or cdvaapg@sentoo.sn


Personality focus
 
Ever wanted to know what nurses, paediatricians or other health care workers in paediatric AIDS are up to elsewhere in Africa? And what they do in their preciously short free time outside of work? In this new section, we introduce you to your fellow colleagues.
 
 
Dr Henry Barigye, Entebbe, Uganda
 
Where do you work? At the Medical Research Council, I am a project leader there.

Tell us a bit about your organisation and recent developments there. We are lucky that our organisation also does research and is therefore often better funded than organisations that purely offer care. Children who come on research related appointments are given transport. Previously both adults and children were using one vehicle which was not enough and children were given less priority (as usual!). We changed that and managed to get a vehicle to bring children earlier, so that they are seen earlier and they go home earlier.

What is the hardest part of your job? I guess it’s having to look after children who hardly have any happiness in their lives.

Tell us a bit about your own family. I have two boys and am married to Florence. I was born about 300 kilometres from where I currently work.

Who is your biggest inspiration? Nelson Mandela.

What are your hobbies? I like to do exercise, such as going for a jog.
 

Dr Ngagne Mbaye, Dakar, Senegal
 
What has been your biggest challenge of the past year? The major problem we faced last year was the lack of paediatric formulations of ARV which lead to shortage of ARV treatment.

And biggest success? The biggest success is the achievement of a framework providing comprehensive care to more than 100 children living with HIV, in a resource-limited area, in the suburbs of Dakar. Despite the strong support of Secure the Future, this success will never exist without the faith and the commitment of the Synergy team.

If you could have one wish to make your job better, what would you wish for? Our dream is to build a day-care unit, which will benefit, in order of priority, malnourished children, children with HIV, children with tuberculosis and street children.

Which of your colleagues do you have the most respect for? I have a special admiration for Professor Souleymane Mboup, the Head of Laboratoire de bacterio-virologie de Hopital Dantec, Dakar. He contributed a lot to the discovery of HIV, in 1985, as a young researcher. Despite his international fame, he is still humble and hard working.
 

Would you like to be featured in our ‘Personality focus’? Or do you have a question you’d like to ask any of our featured health care workers? Please contact the editor on info@teampata.org.

Note from the Editor: The PATA Newsletter belongs to each and every one of you. We would like it to become a place where you can feel at home, where you can learn from your colleagues elsewhere on the continent and pass on some of your own knowledge to those who might need it. Please send us any news from you clinic or country – of successes achieved and of challenges that you still face. Anyone can contribute, simply send us an email. Send any news, information, requests or inquiries to info@teampata.org. We are here to assist you however we can.

Paediatric AIDS care workers and researchers contributing to this edition: Dr Henry Barigye (Uganda), Glenrose Kraai (South Africa), Mavis Jey (South Africa) and Dr Ngagne Mbaye (Senegal).

Other sources: World Health Organization www.who.int and Synergie Pour l’Enfance

© PATA 2006. All Rights Reserved. Published online from South Africa.