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Duration:3 min 42secs

Transcript

KHOPOTSO: Ke fihlile Johannesburg General Hospital metsoso e le mashome a mararo ka mora hora ya leshome le motso o le mong. Ngaka Francois Venter, a maphathaphathe a buang ka potlaka o ne a se a nkemetse. Hanghang, o ile a mmemela kantorong ya hae moo a ileng a qala ho ntemosa ka mosebetsi wa sepetlele mabapi le lefu la Phamokathe.

DR FRANCOIS VENTER: The hospital itself has felt the effects of HIV really intensively over the last few years. Certainly, within the medical wards the rates we’€™re seeing of HIV positive patients versus negative is probably anything between 15 and 80 percent of the patients are HIV positive. And the vast majority of those adults have got an AIDS-defining illness’€¦ And those numbers are not going to get smaller. They’€™re in fact going to probably increase. The same can be said for almost all the hospitals around the area, and in fact, we’€™ve just finished a study at one of the hospitals in the area ‘€“ Helen Joseph Hospital ‘€“ which, has shown that at least, half of all the deaths are HIV-related in the hospital. And these are 20, 30, 40-year old people, young people who are dying of pneumonia, TB ‘€“ all the other markers of HIV. So, we’€™re hoping that the antiretroviral roll-out will have some impact on that.                  

KHOPOTSO: Ngaka Venter o re meriana ya diantiretrovirals ha se ntho ya qala le ho qetela bakeg sa ho hlokomela batho ba nang le Phamokathe. Empa o re ho hlakile ka nnete hore meriana ena e a thusa. Ke mona e hlalosa ka moo tshebeletso ena e tla sebetsang sa Johannesburg sa General.

DR FRANCOIS VENTER: What we’€™re going to do here at the Jo’€™burg Gen is to stream them through an adherence counselling course. Anybody who’€™s eligible for the antiretrovirals will be people who’€™ve got advanced AIDS-defining illnesses or people with very CD 4 counts. People who are healthy with HIV will be inducted into a Wellness Programme and then referred off to the primary health care clinics in the area. People who do have these serious illnesses or have low CD 4 counts will then go through an adherence preparation-type counselling process, which, in my personal view is probably more important than all the doctors and nurses combined in terms of the clinic. That’€™s where we teach them about side-effects, we tell them what’€™s going to happen, what drugs they’€™re going to take, why adherence is so important, and after that they see doctors and nurses who assess them medically and patch them up and sort them out in terms of what they need.

KHOPOTSO: Ebe ka batho ba ba kae ba tlang ho lokisetswa ho fuwa meriana ena ka la 1 Mmesa?

DR FRANCOIS VENTER: We are planning to start on a smallish size of between 20 and 50 patients in the first week. Nobody’€™s ever done it on this scale before, so we’€™re pretty much winging it, we’€™re not sure what’€™s going to happen, we will see. But we’€™re looking for 20 ‘€“ 50 and then we’€™ll start looking at improving the system, so that we can increase the numbers steadily after that.  

KHOPOTSO: Profenseng ya Gauteng ke dibaka tse hlano feela tse tlang ho bula tshebetso ena. Ho ena tshabo ya hore batho ba hahileng dibakeng tse se nang tshebetso ena ba tla falla haufi le dibaka tse fanang ka thuso ena. Na ebe ke bothata bo tla etswa jwang ena?

DR FRANCOIS VENTER:That’€™s a huge problem. It’€™s been a problem for hospitals for all sorts of diseases, whether it’€™s kidney failure or haemophilia. There’€™s been a general movement towards strong urban hospitals’€¦ There’€™s a guy I’€™ve seen next-door from Aliwal North who’€™s asking for therapy. And that’€™s clearly not appropriate, but unfortunately there’€™s nobody else there to help him, so we’€™re going to make a plan. We’€™re going to try and help him and when the time is right we’€™ll refer him to there.      

KHOPOTSO: Ngaka Venter o tletse tshepo ka tshebtso ena, empa o re bothata bo ka bang teng bo tla bakwa ke hore ha ho batho ba lekaneng hantle ho ka sebetsa tlase ho lenaneo lena.

DR FRANCOIS VENTER: I think the most critical areas are the nursing staff. I think we need good, hard nursing staff who are able to manage big, complicated programmes. I think doctors are needed, but I also think that we need really good counsellors, dieticians, psychologists, the works. There’€™s never been a disease quite requiring a team approach. And in fact, my opinion is, particularly with the ARV programme, that the doctors are the least important part of it. The nurses and the counsellors are probably the most important.        

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