Making drugs available
Merriman, A.
Aids Action 1998(41): 7
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0953-0096 PMID: 12294385 Document Number: 278893
Since 1994, Hospice Uganda has been accepting referrals of AIDS patients. The hospice uses the World Health Organization's "analgesic ladder" (aspirin or paracetamol, codeine or dihydrocodeine, and morphine) to control pain in both cancer and AIDS patients. Whereas cancer patients generally require pain control for the rest of their lives, the pain of AIDS patients is often temporary and associated with infections. Outside of hospice settings, pain control may be impeded by health workers' lack of knowledge in this area, noninclusion of analgesics in basic drug kits, and limited access to codeine and morphine. Given the shortage of hospice spaces and physicians in Uganda, new strategies must be developed to make analgesics more accessible at the community level and to train other health workers to diagnose and treat pain.