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Dentists most rightly placed to take care of PLHAs - don
2008-09-22 10:25:06
By Nasser Kigwangallah
Dental surgeons should involve themselves fully in offering medical care to the people living with HIV/Aids (PLHAs) so that the spread of the disease in the country could be curtailed, Emeria Mugonzibwa, Lecturer, Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) has urged.
Dr. Mugonzibwa made the remarks when speaking to `The Guardian` in an exclusive interview in Dar es Salaam this week on the role of dentists in stamping out the spread of HIV/Aids in the country.
She said in order to reduce the extent of HIV/Aids, higher caries among people living with HIV/Aids, it was imperative to devise a strategy in which dental professionals could be utilised fully in offering care and treatment to them.
She said dental professionals were the right persons to address social and health problems raised by PLHAs using the existing HIV/Aids clinics.
She said according to a recent study by dental professionals, it was observed that most PLHAs preferred oral health providers to take care of their dental problems.
``Records show that between 70 per cent and 90 per cent of people living with HIV/Aids have at least one oral manifestation at sometime during the course of their disease and would prefer oral healthy surgeons to come to their rescue,`` Dr. Mugonzibwa said.
According to her the infection rate of HIV/Aids in Tanzania is said to be 7 per cent, hence a need arises to establish more special clinics to offer health services to PLHAs throughout the country, adding that none of the existing health centres offer specialised dental services to PLHAs.
``Due to this deficiency, there is a need therefore for the government to set up special dental clinics to cater for people living with HIV/Aids or a special programme to offer dental services under the umbrella of the already existing clinics,`` Mugonzibwa said.
Juliet Jumbe, one of the people living with HIV/Aids admitted that there were difficulties in getting oral health care and urged dental professionals to have empathy to PLHAs, avoid stigmatisation and observe sterile procedures to control cross infection of HIV/Aids.
She appealed to the government to set up special clinics for care and treatment of PLHAs and that health officials should avoid discrimination of people living with the pandemic.
``We get a number of problems in getting oral health care and treatment when we get dental problems because of lack of such services in many clinics,`` she observed.
A spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare Nsachris Mwamwaja said there was no policy of treating separately PLHAs from other patients.
``The ministry`s policy does not discriminate patients as all are equally treated regardless of their health status and if HIV patients had oral complications, they were referred to dental surgeons for treatment as usual,`` he said.
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