NAIROBI, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- African governments need to prioritize investments in palliative care for patients suffering from a host of terminal diseases like cancers and HIV/Aids in order to prolong their lives, experts said on Friday.
Emmanuel Luyirika, the Executive Director of African Palliative Care Association based in Uganda, said that timely provision of therapies that reduce pain of terminally ill patients is key to averting possible deaths.
Speaking to Xinhua ahead of the launch of a global report on access to palliative care and pain relief to be published by the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet, Luyirika noted that African countries are yet to integrate specialized care for terminally ill patients in their health systems.
"The situation is still dire in Africa in the six main areas namely access to palliative care medicines especially morphine, palliative care education, service delivery, financing and research," said Luyirika.
Researchers involved in the three-year study on the status of global access to palliative care and pain relief discovered that 100 countries provide limited or no specialized care to ease the pain and suffering of terminally ill patients.
The researchers who are affiliated to The Lancet Commission on Global Access to Palliative Care and Pain Relief disclosed that globally, 61 million people suffer severe physical and emotional pain each year.
Regrettably, 83 percent of the 61 million people undergoing severe pain live in low and middle income countries where access to low-cost pain relief tablets like morphine is a mirage.
"The pain gap is a massive global health emergency which has been ignored, except in rich countries," remarked Felicia Knaul, the Chair of the Lancet Commission.
This global pain crisis can be remedied quickly and effectively. We have the right tools and knowledge and the cost of the solution is minimal. Denying this intervention is a moral failing especially for children and patients at the end of life," She added.
Africa is home to 21 out of 25 countries identified in the Lancet report as lacking adequate palliative care interventions such as provision of morphine yet the continent bear the heaviest burden of life-threatening ailments like HIV/Aids, cancers, heart diseases and tuberculosis.
Luyirika said incoherent policies, poverty, under-investments in research and public education continue to undermine efforts to expand access to palliative care in Africa.
He added that inclusion of palliative care in national health insurance schemes and capacity building for health workers at all levels could expand access to this critical service in Sub-Saharan Africa.
"Every effort should be made to ensure that patients are not required to pay out of pocket for palliative care at the moment they need it," said Luyirika, adding that policy reforms and innovative funding models could be the answer to palliative care crisis in Africa.
