|
|
Tanzania: Lack of Education On HIV 'Endangers Old People'
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 2 May 2008
The Citizen Reporter
Old people taking care of their grandchildren whose parents have died from HIV/Aids are in danger of contracting the disease due to lack of education on it.
This concern was raised yesterday by the programme manager of a non governmental organization called Help Age, Mr Musa Mgata, at a seminar for media personnel.
He said old people are susceptible to HIV infection, and their vulnerability is increased by lack of knowledge since education is primarily targeted to the youth.
"Older people have not lost only the support of their adult children, but they have taken on additional family responsibilities with potential adverse effects for their well being," said Mr Mgata.
He said a research conducted has revealed that most of old people who take care of their grandchildren have been isolated by their relatives because of fears that they have also been infected with HIV/Aids.
|
He said due to lack of awareness among wananchi they tend to believe that any child whose parent has died from HIV/Aids must have been infected too.
He said old people were just a small proportion of the society. They deserved assistance and proper support in their health.
Contrary to that, however, many public medical facilities lack drugs needed for chronic illnesses which normally affect them, he added.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 The Citizen. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
