CUBA's plans to rehabilitate its hiv
patients within the community rather
than locking them up in hospitals
has not met with much success. "Uptill
now, only 170 people have joined
the out-patients scheme, and I have
already received several letters requesting readmission," says Jorge Perez
Avila, director of the Santiago de Las
Vegas hospital.
The out-patients scheme, approved
by the health ministry in 1994, was
aimed at Hiv-positive patients who were
symptom-free and -capable of looking
after themselves and others". The hospital itself could be seen as a camp to
take hiv patients off the streets; but to
the patients, who often find life outside
tougher, it is an oasis untouched by the
killing effects of the Cuban economic
crisis.
The 'hospital system'of the national
aids preven@ion programme has been
strongly diticised internationally,
although experts acknowledge Cuba's
success in controlling the spread of the
disease. This, success is attributed to the
national blood screening programmes,
combined with measures to follow up
the sexual pakners of all new cases.
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