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| National |
| Lack of staff hampers Aids fight |
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by
Denis Mzembe, 11 February 2004
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17:21:48
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One of Malawi’s biggest obstacles in the treatment of HIV/Aids is the lack of human resources, visiting Unaids executive director Peter Piot told reporters after meeting President Bakili Muluzi in Blantyre on Wednesday.
“In terms of treatment and care of people living with Aids there are still some obstacles. Funding is there, prices of drugs have come down but we are struck by the lack of human resources including professionals like doctors and nurses.
“Many have died from Aids but many of them are not in the public sector because the pay packages are not attractive including the working conditions,” Piot said.
He said while the strategy, the political commitment and the coordination mechanism to contain the spread of HIV/Aids is there, government still faces the challenge of protecting children between the ages of 5 and 15 from contracting HIV the virus that causes Aids.
“When you look at the Malawian situation very few children are infected between the ages of 5 and 15 years. And the media can play an enormous role in the prevention of the spread of HIV.
“I am convinced that journalists can save more lives than doctors. Of course for treatment you need doctors, you need nurses, but for prevention its communication, its information its organising the communities. So journalists too have a very heavy burden on their shoulders,” Piot, who is also an under secretary general of the United Nations said.
He also said another problem Malawi is struggling with is the lack of openness about sexuality.
“It’s so difficult to discuss sexual matters between parents and children between teachers and children and in the churches and mosques. Special effort has to be made to be more open about Aids and sex. That’s not easy but lets start now,” he said.
Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Development (DFID), Suma Chakrabarti, who also accompanied Piot on the Malawi mission, said Malawi’s economic growth rate would improve by about 1 to 2 percent “if we could together conquer the HIV/Aids problem”.
He also said yet another of government’s major challenges is prioritisation of who receives Anti-retroviral drugs treatment.
“And in terms of capacity of the Ministry of Health emergency solutions have to be found. Solutions that are government of Malawi solutions not donor solutions,” he said.
Minister of health Yusuf Mwawa concurred with both Piot and Chakrabarti that Malawi is facing a severe shortage of health personnel.
“My ministry is in a crisis in terms of staffing. So we are trying to see that this issue is tackled together with the issue of availability of antiretroviral drugs and opportunistic infections that are associated with HIV/Aids,” he said.
Mwawa disclosed that currently only about 4,000 people are on Anti-retroviral treatment.
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