Palliative Care in Africa

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The Trust believe that everyone with a life-limiting or life threatening illness has the right to affordable palliative care.

What is Palliative Care?

The Trustees subscribe to the WHO definition of palliative care, outlined below:

'Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.'

It manages the patient's pain and symptoms and it is applicable early in the course of an illness, in conjunction with curative treatments, and at the end of life. Crucially palliative care also supports the patient's family through the illness and their bereavement.

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The need for palliative care is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa where it is estimated that there are 22 million people living with HIV and that the number of people with cancer will increase by 400% in the next fifty years. The widespread introduction of anti-retroviral drugs has increased the need for palliative care as patients are living longer but still suffering from symptoms of HIV and side effects of the medication.

Trustees are committed to improving access to affordable palliative care in sub-Saharan Africa. The Trust's strategic programme is focussed on increasing access to opioids in Zambia. It has also launched a small grants programme which is administered by the African Palliative Care Association. This programme provides grants, of between £1,000 - £2,500, to organisations offering palliative services across the continent.