Swaziland: The vital but underestimated role of AIDS caregivers

Over 40 percent of sexually active Swazis are HIV positive, but only a few thousand are on antiretroviral (ARV).

Caregivers provide individual attention to bedridden patients at their homes: feeding, washing and dressing them, reading to them, passing on
health advice and offering companionship to help lessen their isolation. Some are volunteers, while others receive a government stipend.

Each of the country's 5,500 non-volunteer caregivers receives R100 (about US17) per month, but the small allowance does not meet the
basic needs of those who get it, and creates resentment among those who are unpaid.

Gender is another issue. At the caregiver's meeting on Tuesday, middle-aged women dominated the group. Of the 1,300 caregivers presently at
work in Swaziland's Hhohho Region, only 33 are males of the 980 caregivers in the rural eastern Lubombo Region, which has been hard hit
by AIDS, only 19 are male.

UNAIDS's Dlamini felt traditional attitudes toward gender and job typeswould have to change if Swaziland is to recruit the number of health
caregivers needed. (Source: IRIN, 9 May, 2006).