CUBA's plans to rehabilitate its hivpatients within the community ratherthan locking them up in hospitalshas not met with much success. "Uptillnow, only 170 people have joinedthe out-patients scheme, and I havealready received several letters requesting readmission," says Jorge PerezAvila, director of the Santiago de LasVegas hospital.
The out-patients scheme, approvedby the health ministry in 1994, wasaimed at Hiv-positive patients who weresymptom-free and -capable of lookingafter themselves and others". The hospital itself could be seen as a camp totake hiv patients off the streets; but tothe patients, who often find life outsidetougher, it is an oasis untouched by thekilling effects of the Cuban economiccrisis.
The 'hospital system'of the nationalaids preven@ion programme has beenstrongly diticised internationally,although experts acknowledge Cuba'ssuccess in controlling the spread of thedisease. This, success is attributed to thenational blood screening programmes,combined with measures to follow upthe sexual pakners of all new cases.