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| ASSEMBLY EDITION • ORLANDO, FLA |
Managing AIDS effectively requires the doctor to involve a patient's family, hence making it the province of family physicians, said Dr. Godfrey Sikipa during his Wonca 2004 presentation, "AIDS in Africa and Around The World," yesterday.
Reinforcing this premise, Sikipa cited the number of children younger than 15 newly infected in 2003: 630,000. Of these, 90 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa, and the majority were infected by mother-to-child transmission, he said.
Sikipa, a public health specialist from Zimbabwe, is now living in North Carolina, where he serves on the United Nations Joint Program on HIV/AIDS.
During his discussion, he presented some disturbing statistics:
• The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is greater in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else.
• AIDS is striking adults in the prime of their lives, affecting their income and productivity and creating a burden on their families and communities.
• Only 4 percent of infected Africans are getting the antiretroviral treatment they need.
General practitioners are well-positioned to inform patients who may be at risk for HIV/AIDS. Only through education can the stigma attached to getting tested be ameliorated, he said.
Finally, he noted that 35 countries are facing physician shortages, and he urged family physicians to consider rotations into the areas of need.
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Copyright © 2003 by American Academy of Family Physicians.