title: AIDS in Africa: what drugs do the carers want or need?
abstract: Our objectives were: (1) to discover requirements for treatment of patients with AIDS (PWAs) for health-care workers in eight English-speaking African countries; (2) to establish policies for supply of drugs, and develop a method for determining the contents of parcels (PWA-BOXes) for the relief of PWAs. Fifty-seven questionnaires were sent to non-government medical units treating PWAs, supplied by the charity Inter Care. Of these 37 units replied, two had no known PWAs, three were swamped by refugees; therefore, the total number analysed was 32. Only 24 units had access to HIV testing and the mean number of PWAs per unit was 58. The reported complications of AIDS were: diarrhoea 28 units; tuberculosis 27 units; pneumonia 28 units; sexually transmitted diseases 26; candidiasis 28 units; and herpes zoster 20. Lists of drug requirements were received. We present a protocol for calculation of contents of PWA-BOXes in the hope that this will provide guidelines for other workers in this field.
authors.affiliation: Inter Care, Leicester, UK.
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Lamont
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Greiff
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Wiggin
mesh_terms: D000349:Africa; D017723:Drug Utilization Review; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D012066:Relief Work
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic