Tea break reading: African palliative care in the news

17^th May – 23^rd May February 2014

News and views:

Editor’s pick:

Global: Palliative care resolution at the 67th World Health Assembly – ehospice news has had running coverage of the palliative care resolution at the WHA. Read article on: Unprecedented support for palliative care at WHA side event, Uganda unites in prayer for World Health Assembly palliative care resolution and Palliative care at the 67th World Health Assembly.
Global: Chronic pain ‘may be inherited’ – Four common chronic pain conditions share a genetic element, suggesting they could – at least in part – be inherited diseases, say researchers. BBC Health.
Global: Doctors are still not good at talking about dying – For the sake of dying patients, we have to somehow get doctors – who are already overwhelmed – into palliative care training. The Guardian.

Elsewhere in the news:

Global: Health workers, patients under attack – Hundreds of attacks on health workers have occurred in dozens of countries around the world since 2012, Human Rights Watch and the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition said in a joint report. Human Rights Watch.
Global: Can social media help the grieving process? An honest look at the role that social media can play in facilitating the grief process of parents and family members on losing a beloved child. International Children’s edition of ehospice.
Africa: Viral load testing dismally absent in Africa – As Africa scales up lifesaving antiretroviral therapy for HIV positive people, concerns are rife that the absence of mass routine viral load testing will hamper extending treatment to the millions who need it. IPS.
Kenya: Rural hospice in Kenya provides compassionate palliative care to hundreds each year – To assist in meeting the needs of those with serious, life-threatening illnesses, 32 hospices and palliative care facilities have been built throughout Kenya to support patients and families. Science Index.
Uganda: Critics say Uganda’s new HIV law a giant step backward – A Ugandan bill criminalizing the “willful” transmission of HIV and mandating HIV tests for certain groups is awaiting the president’s signature to become law. Such a law could be a setback in the country’s fight against AIDS. Voice of America.
Uganda: HIV nurse Rosemary Namubiru jailed by Kampala court – A Ugandan court has sentenced a nurse to three years in prison for negligence over the potential infection of a two-year-old boy with HIV. BBC Health.
Uganda: Ugandan engineer bets on bike-building to improve lives – Eighty seven percent of Uganda’s 36 million people live in rural areas. With health services and schools often located far away from villages, getting around is a major problem. France 24.
Zimbabwe: No more suffering in silence – advocating for access to palliative care in Zimbabwe! – Life-threatening illnesses like cancer have been known to cause inexpressible suffering for both the patient and the carers alike if no medical recourse is available in African countries. SAFAIDS.

Research:

Africa: ‘Peace’ and ‘life worthwhile’ as measures of spiritual well-being in African palliative care: a mixed-methods study – Patients with incurable, progressive disease receiving palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa experience high levels of spiritual distress with a detrimental impact on their quality of life. Locally validated measurement tools are needed to identify patients’ spiritual needs and evaluate and improve spiritual care, but up to now such tools have been lacking in Africa. The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) African Palliative Outcome Scale (POS) contains two items relating to peace and life worthwhile. We aimed to determine the content and construct validity of these items as measures of spiritual wellbeing in African palliative care populations. PubMed Canada.
Sub-Saharan Africa: Difficulty, despair and hope – an insight into the world of the health professionals treating paediatric pain in sub-Saharan Africa – Journal of Research in Nursing
South Africa: TB/HIV risk factors identified from a General Household Survey of South Africa – The level of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), tuberculosis (TB) as well as the co-infection TB/HIV in South Africa is among the highest in the world. TB is curable while HIV is not, yet the combination of both is a growing feature in the world. This study examined TB and HIV affecting people living in South Africa. Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS.
Tanzania: Factors associated with HIV-status disclosure to HIV-infected children receiving care at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre in Moshi, Tanzania – With the introduction of antiretroviral drugs HIV-infected children live longer. Disclosure of HIV diagnosis is increasingly an important and inevitable issue. Both healthcare providers and caregivers face challenges of disclosure to children. The objective of the study was to explore factors associated with HIV-status disclosure to HIV-infected children receiving care at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC). Pan African Medical Journal.

Jobs, awards and events:

Global: #HPMGlobal twitter chat. Join Jim Cleary on twitter at 3pm (East Africa Time) every Monday to discuss the latest global palliative care issues. Twitter
Global: 20th International AIDS Conference – The conference will be held from 20-25 July 2014 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, in Melbourne, Australia and will represent a tremendous opportunity to highlight the diverse nature of the Asia Pacific region’s HIV epidemic and the unique responses to it. International AIDS Society.
Global: World Congress of Psycho-Oncology – The congress, which will be based around the theme of ‘Integrating phsycho-oncology into mainstream cancer care; from research into action’, will bring together experts from around the world to discuss new perspectives in clinical care, new data from research, innovative educational programs, advocacy, organisational issues and cancer policies. It is to beheld in Lisbon, Portugal from 20 to 24 of October 2014. International edition of ehospice.
Africa: Find all the latest jobs in palliative care and related fields – Visit ehospice’s job site to see the latest jobs in palliative care. African edition of ehospice.
South Africa: HPCA 2014 Conference – Who Cares? Improving patient outcomes – The conference will be held between the 15^th and 18^th September 2014 at the Lagood Beach Hotel in Cape Town. More details on the HPCA Conference Website.
Kenya: The 4th Kenya National Palliative Care Conference 2014 – Kenya Hospices and Palliative Care Association (KEHPCA) is delighted to announce the 4th National Palliative Care Conference scheduled to take place from 12th to 14th November 2014 at Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi. KEHPCA.
Nigeria: 54th Society of Physiotherapy Annual Scientific Conference and General Meeting – the sub-theme for this year’s conference is ‘The Role of Physiotherapy in Palliative Care for Terminally ill Patients’. It will take place in Asaba, Delta State between the 20^th and 25^th October 2014. NSP.
Uganda: Hospice health fair – Come to the grounds of Hospice Africa Uganda for their Hospice Health Fair from 10:00am on the 28^th May 2014. HAU.
Uganda: IHPCA open day – Come to Hospice Africa Uganda to learn what IHPCA can offer you from 2:00 to 5:00pm on the 26^th May 2014. HAU.

Because you’ve read this far:

Global: It’s hard to better traditional hymns when it comes to remembering the dead – The stirring, lovely music of the church might be the Reformation’s lasting comfort to us, believers or not. The Guardian.

Finally if you have any news, views, research, jobs or events that you would like included in next week’s round up, contact us.