Abstract:
The whole issue of care and support to people living with HIV I AIDS (PL WHA) is
challenging. Tanzania has also adopted home based care for these patients, however
there is a limited client's based ikormation to guide the inputs.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Ilala Municipality in Dar es Salaam from
May-June 2004 with the objective of finding out the needs of HIV I AIDS patients and
their satisfaction with HBC services provided.
A total of 304 HIV/AIDS patients under HBC, aged 19-69 years were interviewed.
Information was obtained through structured interviews to the patients who gave
consent.
The results showed that 95.1 percent of the HIV I AIDS patients in Ilala district were
satisfied with the care being given; especially those who received free medical care. The
least satisfied were the young respondents; the never married, unemployed, and those
expressed their needs as being financial. The main providers of the HBC services were
NGOs (55.7 percent) and the family members (27.7percent). Most of the respondents
(61.2 percent) had at least three meals per day especially those who received care from
family members, from the NGOs and those of medium sized families. Those having
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education (68.3percent), being married (29.1percent) and widowed (32.4 percent)
afforded three meals and above. This shows that there is still a need for improvement.
Therefore this study recommends that the Government should collaborate with the
NGOs and other stakeholders to have a system in place to monitor this socio-economic
gap, so that HBC services becomes an instrument of improving the quality of care of
HIV / AIDS patients and hence their satisfaction.
