Oral Poster Session

The first presentation was on the palliative care of PLWHA persons suffering during the terminal cases. The title of the paper - San Laarao Hospital Manila, Breaking down barriers - A care initiative in palliative care. The palliative care is within an infectious disease hospital, functional in the last nine months and has 900 beds. The team taking of care of PLWHA in their last journey comprises of a nurse-cum-health educator, psychotherapist and medical doctors. One of their main activities is to break down the barriers about death and encourage people to talk about death and prepare them for the same. Self care for the care providers, symptomatic treatment, handling grief and loss issues, communication are some of their key areas of work. Their future plans are to train the core group of Philipino facilitators who could in the long run take care of the program, link up with other hospitals and NGOs in the region and establish this unit as a collaborating centre. The palliative care of PLWHA is slightly different from other cases in that often the patient are younger, grief-loss issues are more difficult to handle, stigma and isolation are difficult areas to deal with. Cost and burden of treatment for persons living with HIV/AIDS in South India - Duraisamy Palanigounder. This work was a joint effort between Population Council and YRG, Care in South India. Calculation of cost was under two main categories - medical and non-medical. Even under non-medical the travel expenses related to medical treatment was included. Food, lodging and expenses towards rituals were the other costs included. The samples included both high income and low-income group PLWHA,but probably were not representative. Family Support Services - a legal resource for HIV positive women - this was an interesting network that developed into good collaborative activities between the AIDS Council of NSW (ACON) and HIV/AIDS Legal Centre (HALC) in Australia.The project is meant for women,but they are not yet sure as to how to include indigenous female population.