Port Moresby Hospital AIDS scare

“The people coming into the emergency section are critically ill of HIV syndromes. It shows we have a major national disaster,’’ Prof Sapuri.

THE nation’s largest hospital could lose many of its health workers to HIV/AIDS unless they are properly equipped to do their work.

Executive Dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences Professor Mathias Sapuri revealed yesterday that one or two of Port Moresby General Hospital doctors, nurses and other health workers get needle-stick injuries a month.

However, there were no contemporary antiretoviral drugs for post-exposure prophylaxis for everyone.

At the same time, the hospital does not always have gloves available for workers, particularly nurses to protect themselves when attending to bleeding patients and those in human secretions.

Prof Sapuri said this while releasing information on a study carried out at the hospital’s emergency department which showed that 18 per cent of patients seen there were HIV positive.

The department attends to 450 to 500 patients a day. The 18 per cent who were HIV amounted to one in five patients. Of that, 53 per cent were male and 47 female.

The study, by doctors to determine the prevalence of HIV antibody in patients at the emergency department, was carried out between April and July 2003. He appealed to leaders of all levels, including the private sector, to get together and do something to address the issue.

He said in many countries in Africa, the HIV prevalence rates began to drop when the highest political leadership took charge of the campaign against HIV/AIDS.

He said many studies in the past were carried out among high-risk groups, but the study at the emergency department had confirmed that people of all groups were at risk.

He said it was the tip of the iceberg and unless everyone worked together, PNG could lose one million people to HIV in 10 to 15 years in the economically productive age group of 15 to 55 year-olds.

“The results are alarming. That shows that nearly one in five patients were HIV positive. Currently, it is said that 2 per cent of our (PNG) population is HIV positive, but this shows that the prevalence rate is much higher in the community,” Prof Sapuri said. “The people coming into the emergency section are critically ill of HIV syndromes. It shows we have a major national disaster.’

The results of the study, carried out by visiting professor of the school of medicine Dr Chris Curry, senior lecturer Dr Carolyn Annerud and director of PMGH’s blood bank Dr Biro Babona, have been published in the Emergency Medicine Australasia, a reputable journal in Australia.

They will also be presented at the medical symposium in two weeks in Goroka.

Prof Sapuri also urged that the awareness on HIV be continued and the programs strengthened so that people make responsible decisions to protect themselves from getting infected with HIV.

He said churches also had to preach the message of one sexual partner for one person, while non-government organisations, the National AIDS Council and other groups should increase awareness activities.
“We need to make sure condoms are easily available in the community. Condoms do not promote sex, but the idea of having sex is a behavioural thing,’’ Prof Sapuri said.