Health workers angered by AIDS deaths

South Africa's doctors and nurses have expressed anger over having to see people dying of AIDS-related illnesses, the South African Press Association (SAPA) reported on Friday. Health workers recently embarked on a countrywide picket urging the government to implement a national antiretroviral treatment plan for people living with HIV/AIDS. Wearing T-shirts with the words "HIV positive" and "health workers support the treatment plan", protesting workers in Johannesburg also said they were overworked. Edna Bokaba, a nurse at the local Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital, said the hospital was short-staffed by 1,000 nurses, while some 80 percent of patients were affected by opportunistic infections related to HIV. The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), along with a number of unions representing the workers, has expressed support for the action.