Patients with HIV concerned about the new healthcare cuts

Patients with HIV concerned about the new healthcare cuts / 14ymedio,
Yosmany Mayeta Labrada
Posted on February 6, 2015

14ymedio, YOSMANY MAYETA LABRADA, Santiago de Cuba, 3 February 2015 —
Concern has spread in recent weeks among patients with the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the province of Santiago de Cuba.
According to a new "guidance" from the Ministry of Public Health, care
of HIV-positive people will no longer occur in a specialized clinic, but
rather will be handled at the regular family clinics in their neighborhoods.

The measure has been greeted with alarm by those who say it will result
in a decreased quality of medical care, and who fear the loss of privacy
over their status. In an environment where prejudices and fears still
prevail against people living with HIV, medical attention in the area
where they live could cause neighbors and family members to reject them.

Several physicians who work in the family medical clinics, moreover,
acknowledged in the meetings held to implement the new policy that they
are not prepared to treat people with HIV. Until now, the monitoring and
care of these patients has been in centralized clinics, handled by a
medical doctor and a nurse specializing in the treatment of this virus.

However, the constant loss of medical personnel who leave to go on
international missions, along with the apparent decrease in resources
available for healthcare, have made it impossible to maintain the
specialized clinics. A setback to which is added the recent cuts in the
supplemental food received by seropositive people.

Prior to this guidance, many patients were already complaining about
violations of the code of ethics on the part of the physicians and
public health personnel, who revealed their disease to other people.
Now, fears about possible indiscretions are growing. Given the more
local and neighborhood character of the clinics, the problem could
worsen in the coming months.

Otto Reyes is one of the many HIV patients who claims to have been a
victim of an indiscretion on the part of a nurse who treated him, who
revealed his HIV status to a near neighbor. An experience similar to
that of Damaris Rivaflecha and Dulca Maria Benitez, who were extremely
disgusted by how information about their illness was publicly aired; as
a result of such carelessness they decided not to return to the clinic.

The situation is more dramatic among very young patients. A young man,
18, who prefers anonymity, said that he fears that people in his area
will learn about his illness when he has to start being treated at the
nearest family clinic. For him, "It will be like starting from zero,"
and he says he will feel like "they gave me the diagnosis all over
again, people will look down on me and what I'm most afraid of is
rejection."

Lester Acosta, who also lives with the disease, told this newspaper he
had suffered discrimination for being HIV positive, including within his
own family. He, who has experienced it firsthand, wonders what will
happen now with the end of the specialized clinics. "What will become of
those who don't want their condition to be publicly known?" he laments.

Source: Patients with HIV concerned about the new healthcare cuts /
14ymedio, Yosmany Mayeta Labrada | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/patients-with-hiv-concerned-about-the-new-healthcare-cuts-14ymedio-yosmany-mayeta-labrada/