4th International AIDS Conference


Stockholm, Sweden. — June 12-16, 1988

[TITLE:] AIDS CARE: MEETING THE HEALTH CARE NEEDS OF THE HIV INFECTED

Int Conf AIDS. 1988 Jun 12-16;4:1.109 (abstract no. PL14)

Constance E. Wofsy
Department of Medicine, San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, CA USA

To meet the needs of HIV infected individuals, innovative approaches to health care delivery have been developed that will soon affect the entire worldwide medical care system. Innovations include: dedicated inpatient and outpatient AIDS treatment and research units, extensive community service organizations, active volunteers, hospices, visiting nurses, AIDS information hot lines, confidential testing sites, outpatient infusion centers, integration of research and clinical care, and new roles for health professionals. For some, AIDS has become an unofficial medical subspecialty.

Coping with HIV infection poses extraordinary challenges. HIV Health care providers must provide the nurturing of a bygone era coupled with the technologic expertise of the 1990's. Physicians who have come to expect some measure of choice in the patients they care for must learn to accept HIV; staggering health care costs, a sorely-taxed public care system, fear of infection or medical inadequacy, declining nursing school enrollment, decreased interest in primary care medical specialties, a dwindling supply of community volunteers and sparse extended care facilities hamper our efforts to provide for AIDS patients. However, the abundance of vacant hospital beds, the social and scientific challenge of AIDS care and research, employment opportunities and a new generation of health care professionals accepting AIDS as part of the challenge of medicine all offer hope for change.

In AIDS we have the opportunity to reintroduce the art of healing back into the increasingly technologic practice of medicine. In doing so, we will all face our own mortality.

880612
PL14

Copyright © 1987 - International AIDS Society (IAS). Reproduction of this abstract (other than one copy for personal reference) must be cleared through the IAS.