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Tanzania :: New HIV/AIDS Project in Tanzania Chris Daley, from Yepoon in Queensland, just returned from two months in the Makete District of the Livingstone Ranges region of Tanzania. Here Chris helped to set up and open Médecins Sans Frontières’ latest HIV/AIDS treatment project. Médecins Sans Frontières currently provides antiretroviral treatment to more than 23,000 patients in a total of 27 countries around the world, Tanzania the newest addition. “Médecins Sans Frontières identified Makete District as the poorest, most remote and most severely affected [by HIV/AIDS] region in Tanzania,” said Chris recently on his return to Australia. As a logistician for Médecins Sans Frontières, his job on arrival in Makete was to get the infrastructure ready for the new program, including the setting up of an office, staff accommodation and the clinic where the treatment takes place.
“There are 1500 patients awaiting treatment right now, and there is a large orphan and widow population because of the disease,” said Chris. Médecins Sans Frontières is expecting a large project and intake to follow in this region due to its remoteness and apparent lack of health services. “The needs are obvious in this region and there are many people very sick with AIDS, this was evidenced by the fact that the local Lutheran capacity building officer died of AIDS just three days after I met him in a meeting,” said Chris, “it was quite a shock.”
A very positive indication of things to come in the region were events and meetings marking World AIDS Day on the 1st December. Community rallies and meetings with thousands of people attending – that was a big step because for many years there has been a stigma attached to the disease, due to the strict religious teachings of missionaries. The very next day Médecins Sans Frontières opened its clinic and 20 patients were immediately put on ARV treatment.
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