THE REALITY OF DESPAIR - AIDS IN MALAWI

While completing a recent medical elective in the Central African coun try of Malawi, medical student Dale Needham learned firsthand that HIV /AIDS represents a true pandemic in Africa. By the end of 1993, Malawi had the continent's highest per capita number of cumulative reported AIDS cases. Although Canadian physicians have had their own struggles helping patients with HIV/AIDS, many more battles are being fought in countries like Malawi, where financial resources are limited. In Afric a, HIV-positive people of all ages suffer incredibly from diseases suc h as protein energy malnutrition, tuberculosis and cryptococcal mening itis. Primary health care programs, eduction in the primary schools an d community awareness and support are partial answers to the pandemic.