New research recently published by former Rachel House volunteer dr Suryadi Limardi – supported by long-standing Rachel House advisor Professor Edward Poon – has shed light on the increasing need for palliative care for Indonesian children living with HIV.
Do you know that Indonesia has been one of the countries with the highest rate of HIV infection in children? In the past five years, the rate of HIV infection in children in the country has increasing significantly – but unfortunately, only 25% of these children are accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART), thus might causing premature death to the majority of these children. In addition, studies showed that children accessing ART are still experiencing physical, psychological, psychosocial and spiritual problems thus needing a chronic-long term care to tackle these multi-aspect problems.
Although palliative care has been shown to significantly improve the quality of life and enhance retention in HIV care, there remains a significant gap between fulfilling the need for palliative care and the availability and accessibility of existing palliative care services for children living with HIV (CLHIV) in the country. Integrating palliative care into the existing standard of care for CLHIV would be an effective way to scale-up the availability of palliative care services across Indonesia. By successfully integrating palliative care into the national health program for HIV, health care services across islands in Indonesia thus would be able to provide palliative care and reaching out for those living in rural areas. This integration would complement and improve the existing care for CLHIV and their families in Indonesia.
To find out more about how palliative care help improve quality of life and outcomes for children living with HIV read the full article here – www.tandfonline.com
Suryadi Limardi is a graduate from Atma Jaya University and is currently working at a community health center in rural Sumba, Indonesia. dr. Suryadi volunteered at Rachel House in 2016 and is currently focusing his works on children’s health issues.