HIV/AIDS patients in Zambia; Are they cared for? Essay

Executive summaryHuman Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired immune Deficiency Syndrome ( tender immunodeficiency virus/ back up) pandemic has relieve starselfd terrible burden for millions of individuals, families and communities worldwide. All sorts of exertions wear been move to curtail this tormentor and yet no known cure or vaccines pick up been discovered to keep open it. Religious prayers and nonwithstanding rituals countenance also seemed futile. However, the only option now is to only provide tender finagle, contend and even nurture for those that are infected and consequently bear upon. This might prevent unless interpenetrate and in turn minimise further impacts. This admit seeks to improve on the care that should be rendered to human immunodeficiency virus/ support patients and even strategize on how to improve the offbeat of these ill-fated battalion. This area is a conclave of situational summary through a scientific study to understand dissimilar dynam ics of management of human immunodeficiency virus/ back up patients in Zambia accompanied by formulation of strategies based on findings of the study.BackgroundThe human immunodeficiency virus/ help preponderance rate in Zambia has even become unmatched of the highest in the world. The preponderance rate in the general cosmos is estimated to be 14.3 per cent with near 930, 000 multitude living with HIV/acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Gener each(prenominal)y, despite all the campaigns, the stigma associated with HIV/ assist still exists. On one hand, patients who are infected and have all the symptoms claim to be neglected at the hospitals and are not given the surmount services. It may not be out of piece to query whether these health care providers are really taking care of HIV/ help patients. Several interventions have been staked so far just now they do not seem to adequately address and even rate if HIV/AIDS patients are fully attended to by health care providers.F or example, though not very successful, the National HIV/AIDS/STI/TB intervention strategy plan 20022005 was developed with providing care to people living and affected by HIV/AIDS as one of the strategies of reducing the dispel of AIDS. This research endeavours to provide a fundamental overview of how best the society at large can prevent further spread of HIV through care. This is deemed necessary for the implementation of an HIV/AIDS freehanded management policies. If it comes out necessary to quarantine HIV patients, we testament not hesitate to articulate that.RationaleThis study aims at creating space for all people living with HIV/AIDS in different settings oddly in hospital environment, where most of them seek medical advice. This study shall extemporise core framework for any change/s at the institutional and individual levels and across all sectors that in turn shall help create an environment of understanding, empathy, love, trust, hope, human rights and dignity for those most in need, that is, HIV/AIDS patients.ProblemThe major problem is the increased levels of stigmatization, discrimination and colza of human rights of HIV/AIDS patients in various settings. Minor problems include * neglect of fall apart strategies to visual modality with matters of HIV/AIDS * Lack of consistency in delivery of health care* Lack of friendly or sociable relationship between HIV/AIDS patients and care takersObjectivesIn addressing the problems say above, the following specific research objectives have to be achieved i. To investigate the intent to which patients are cared for by health care providers and relations. ii. To investigate the nutritional well-being of HIV/AIDS patients. iii. To identify factors leading to stigma, discrimination and human rights violation of HIV/AIDS patients. iv. To frame recommendations/strategies for form _or_ system of government makers and other influential groups for improvements in mixer well-being of HIV/AIDS patients .MethodologyParticipantsOur sample coat is 150 and these consist of all HIV/AIDS patients in the selected hospitals within Lusaka. The number of patients to approach per hospital pass on be determined on the total number of admitted patients at the time of data collection. Our target population is all HIV/AIDS patients that have been admitted to the selected hospitals for at least one week. However, since it depart be impossible to survey all HIV/AIDS patients in all hospitals in the City of Lusaka, our study population provide be patients admitted to University Teaching Hospital (UTH) and bill Mwanawasa General Hospital. These patients are to be found on weekdays/weekends during the stipulated visiting hours per hospital. Data AnalysisData allow be entered in excel and analysed using SPSS version 16 and descriptive statistics will be computed using the same software. SPSS will be selected because it is exploiter friendly. Research MethodOur research method is to perform a s ituational analysis study using a questionnaire capturing the HIV/AIDS patients nutritional status, social relationship with care takers and how often they are visited by their relations. The questionnaire is as guileless as possible to avoid frustrating the patients. Our sampling method will be convenience sampling where we would but visit HIV/AIDS patients in hospitals under study. Convenience sampling will be use because this method would not impose a huge cost. Due to confidentiality and good considerations, the then main clinicians during data collection, at the hospitals under study will help to distribute questionnaires to those HIV/AIDS patients willing to participate. Currently, at UTH, we have Dr Nyirenda and Dr Musonda who are willing to administer the questionnaires in clinic five of UTH and Dr Alfred at Levy Mwanawasa General Hospital. We will simply approach any HIV/AIDS patient and ask them to inform in our survey.We will lot an personal survey by sketchly intr oducing to them the purpose of our survey and explain wherefore their participation will be valuable to the public. We will ask them if they have 3 minutes to do our survey. By having given them a brief introduction before we interview them, we can have a bump sense of whether or not our survey is applicable to them. All non-HIV/AIDS patients in the stated hospitals will be ineligible to participate in the survey. In addition, a focus group will also be used to discuss the perceived prejudices that HIV/AIDS patients face.We will simply ask two HIV/AIDS patients, one representative from UNZA HIV/AIDS response office and one representative from the Ministry of Health to volunteer to give us one hour on one even out to get their opinions about the current levels of stigmatization, discrimination and violation of human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS. A facilitator will be present to conduct the group discussion and ask several open-ended questions while another(prenominal) rep resentative will record the respondents answers during the discussion. The advantage of this focus group study is that it is not costly, not time consuming and we can get in-depth entropy and opinions from people who are directly and frequently affected by the problem. anticipate ResultsExpected OutcomesMounting evidence suggests that no known cure for HIV/AIDS has been unearthed so far. This simply entails that we can only reduce further spread of the pandemic by improving the lives of the people who are infected and affected by the pandemic. Consequently, this study will not only train the policy makers on the real strategy of reducing the further spread of HIV/AIDS but also propose measures that may deal with the problem more effectively.It is further expect that this study will aim a research newspaper publisher and a fact sheet on the dynamics and impact of stigmatization and discrimination on those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS in Zambia. In the final analysis, it is pass judgment that Government through the Ministry of Health and indeed the donors will be better informed, and could adopt some of the findings and recommendations in their policies. ImpactResults from this study are expected to feed into policies aimed at improving the well-being of HIV/AIDS patients in the country. From these, it is expected that the policies can be inferred to other countries facing HIV/AIDS. enjoymentIt is expected that findings from this study will be utilised by policy makers and implementers to enhance health care planning and ensure that the scarce matter resources are allocated efficiently on projects that give the highest social and economic returns to HIV/AIDS patients.DisseminationFindings from this study will be disseminated through workshops that will be held so that all the stakeholders are informed about the viability of report findings as a remedial measure to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Zambia. Lastly, the study report will be available on the UNZ A website and at UNZA HIV/AIDS response office for all to read.