Palliative care is vital in controlling symptoms of the patients disease condition, also aims to extend the patients life, giving it a better quality. Several times in the course of management, psychosocial impact of cancer, AIDS, and other life-limiting disease conditions may not be noticed and dealt with during the admission period, give rise to a more complex situation than the disease condition itself. Understanding of what palliative is and training to carry it out is necessary for policy makers, health professionals and families. For HIV, such training needs to be linked to training on areas specific to HIV such as control of transmission, issues of stigma and discrimination. Palliative care is not recognized in many government plans and Advocacy for provision of palliative care as part of the essential health service system by the government will be a move towards ensuring some budget allocation for provision of care for chronic illnesses. Palliative care is not an alternative to other models of health care. It is not in competition with efforts to provide antiretroviral and other advanced therapies, nor is it a poor relative to be implemented where such therapies are currently inaccessible. It is an essential part of a comprehensive health care system, which is missing in many developing countries, and must not be neglected in the efforts to provide greater accessibility to more technical drugs and therapies.
Last date updated on April, 2024