Half of patients in South African public hospitals HIV-positive

Nearly half of all patients in public hospitals in South Africa are HIV positive, according to a secret government report leaked to a South African newspaper.
"The research has found that AIDS patients have started 'crowding out' other patients from hospitals as the impact of AIDS is increasingly taking its toll on both health workers and health facilities," said the Saturday Star.
More than five million South Africans in a population of 45 million are infected with HIV or AIDS, a higher rate than any other country in the world.
The report titled "The impact of HIV/AIDS on the health sector" was completed last year but kept under wraps, said the paper, adding that the document said 46 percent of patients in state hospitals were HIV-positive.
The report was based on an in-depth study completed during 2002 under the direction of Olive Shisana of the Human Sciences Research Council's programme on the social aspects of HIV/AIDS.
"Aspects of the report's finding were discussed at least year's AIDS conference (in the port city of Durban), but the government has so far refused to release the full 175-page report," the paper said.
The report warned the government to train more nurses, as up to 16 percent of health workers were likely to die from AIDS between 2002 and 2007, while some 29 percent of all deaths of health workers were attributable to AIDS, according to the Star.
More and more health workers infected with the HIV virus are also having to work harder than before due to the extra demands of AIDS patients, which include counselling needs for the patients and their families.
"They said they did not even have enough time to address the physical and emotional needs of HIV/AIDS patients, let alone the health needs of other patients," the report said.
"As a result, they spend longer hours at work, which in turn led to absenteeism, whereas many facilities already experience chronic staff shortage," it added.
In mid-November, South Africa's cabinet approved the outline of a plan to provide potentially life-saving anti-retroviral drugs for those infected with HIV/AIDS, after several court battles between government and AIDS lobby groups.
One group, the influencial Treatment Action Campaign, said this week they welcomed the plan, but expressed concern that there was lack of progress in implementing it.