National AIDS Counselling Service Is Travelling Round Britain Educating Hospitals On The Way To Handle AIDS Sufferers

Practical advice for health workers on supporting patients with AIDS.

Exterior view of the Lister Hospital, Stevenage, Hertfordshire and scenes of staff at work. The North Hertfordshire Health Authority has so far had no cases of AIDS, and just two people testing positive for the HIV virus. There have been 800 cases nationally so far, and 10,000 expected by 1991. Education has a key role in preventing the virus and disease from spreading. The National AIDS Counselling Service is visiting to provide information and guidance. A presentation is given to a large audience of doctors and nursing staff so they will be better informed in working with the public. Anglia TV Peter Lugg interviews Dr John Green of the National AIDS Counselling Service. Dr Green says they are going to be covering counselling and providing up to date information about the virus and AIDS, and how best to deal with people affected. Asked about the government’s AIDS awareness publicity, he says he thinks the latest newspaper advertising is better than previous campaigns. He thinks the television publicity will be crucial and it needs to be more explicit, with the chance that it might offend some people. Some still think wrongly that the virus can be transmitted through everyday contact when shaking hands or using shared facilities such as cups and lavatories. It needs to be made clear that it is sexual behaviour which puts people at risk, and for intravenous drug users, the sharing of needles and syringes. Clip of a recent newspaper article reports that the Royal College of Nursing states that nursing staff cannot opt out of working with AIDS patients. Dr Green says that staff should not be at risk so long as they are following normal clinical procedures as this is not a particularly infectious disease except sexually. There have been just two unfortunate incidents where staff accidentally injected themselves with affected blood. More scenes of nursing staff in the hospital. It is hoped that a vaccine against the disease might be available in 5 years’ time. Clip of a newspaper prediction of 100,000 virus carriers in Britain in the next few years. This video was made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

AIDS; HIV; Government messages; Government films; Publicity campaigns; health research; health and safety at work