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Hospital overcrowding by HIV-positive people

    JOHANNESBURG

    South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has warned that people living with HIV/AIDS could soon occupy all beds in public hospitals.

    Lebogang Letlape of the HSRC said at the Social Aspects of HIV and AIDS Research Alliance conference in Cape Town that overcrowding could in coming years see HIV-negative people being denied proper care at public hospitals and clinics.

    The public sector needed a policy to determine how long people should stay in hospital and under what circumstances they should be admitted and discharged, she said, so that AIDS patients did not take up all the beds and medical care, reported the Cape Times, a local newspaper.

    The HSRC has estimated there will be around 500,000 new AIDS cases by 2007, with half that number seeking help at public hospitals and clinics.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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