asked the Minister for Health the total number of deaths from AIDS in this country to date; the total estimated number of people currently suffering from AIDS; the number of cases and the number of deaths from AIDS likely to occur over the next ten years; the progress that has been made in combating the condition and assisting sufferers; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - AIDS Statistics.
10.
A total of 93 cases of AIDS have been reported to the Department of Health as follows:
|
Homosexuals/Bisexuals |
36 |
|
IV Drug Abusers |
31 |
|
Homo/Bisexual/IVDU |
5 |
|
Haemophiliacs |
12 |
|
Heterosexuals |
3 |
|
Babies born to IV Drug Abusers |
4 |
|
Undetermined |
2 |
|
93 |
Of these, 41 have died, as follows:
|
Homosexuals/Bisexuals |
13 |
|
IV Drug Abusers |
9 |
|
Homo/Bisexual/IVDU |
4 |
|
Haemophiliacs |
7 |
|
Heterosexuals |
3 |
|
Babies born to IV Drug Abusers |
4 |
|
Undetermined |
1 |
|
41 |
A total of 24,823 persons have been tested for the virus and, of this, 814 have tested positive.
In relation to a projection of the number of cases and deaths over the next ten years, all the indications are that Ireland is heading into an epidemic with a projected doubling of cases of full-blown AIDS every nine months, which is likely to last for the next four to eight years. This growth of cases in Ireland is accepted by the WHO Collaborating Centre on AIDS in Paris and it assumes very little impact of intervention programmes such as the Outreach programme or public information-education campaigns. Assuming this rate of growth, by 1995 there could be as many as 12,240 cases but it would not be appropriate to extrapolate beyond that.
Considerable progress has been made in combating the disease and assisting sufferers since the Government's AIDS strategy commenced in 1984. The strategy has been developed in line with national and international requirements and recommendations and compares very favourably with strategies adopted in other countries.
Can the Minister give any indication as to whether or not those who have been tested as positive will have their lifespan extended due to the care being provided by the health services and are the Government providing assistance or are they involved in any way in research for a cure?
The AZT injection prolongs life for AIDS sufferers and it is available. The major research in which we are involved relates to AIDS in children and infants. As the Deputy is aware, we have a very high number of children with AIDS, 53 of them throughout the country. We are involved in research at European level. Recently a grant of £30,000 was made by my Department to the AIDS fund to further that research.
Will the Minister give a commitment to the House that in the near future he will introduce a national AIDS plan? To date the Minister has referred to the committee that has been sitting. When will their report on AIDS services be published? Will the Minister specifically include in that report the caring as well as the medical aspects and welfare allowances for such things as mobility, heating, electricity costs and so on?
I have not yet received the report of the committee chaired by my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Leyden. When I receive it, I will study it and I can assure Deputy Yates that the Government will provide the necessary level of services and care for AIDS sufferers.
Has the Minister changed his mind on the need to promote the use of condoms and to have a needle exchange programme, as essential measures, as the national AIDS co-ordinator said, in the fight against the spread of AIDS?
No, I have not changed my mind. As stated in this House on previous occasions, my view of the needle exchange and condom programme is that it needs to be very carefully monitored. In the Outreach programme established by the EHB, where a counsellor believes that it is in the interests of a particular intravenous drug abuser to have needles supplied, they will be supplied, but the idea of having needles or condoms freely available all over the place is not a satisfactory way to deal with the problem.
The Eastern Health Board are doing it. The Minister cannot have it both ways.
(Interruptions.)
Arising from the Minister's reply and the alarming real and projected increase in AIDS sufferers and arising from the disappointment which is shared across the House that the report which the Minister of State promised for last week is still unavailable to the Minister, can the Minister acknowledge that there is an epidemic and that it should be treated as such. Will the Minister revamp and restart the media education campaign? What plans has the Minister to improve immediately the facilities in St. James's Hospital which were described a few weeks ago as totally inadequate.
On the question of the mass-media campaign, we are looking at that again. After the last mass-media campaign an evaluation was carried out and it was found that the vast majority of people in the country know how one gets AIDS and how to avoid it. Our particular problem is that many AIDS victims are intravenous abusers and a mass-media programme would not have any real impact on them. What is necessary is one to one counselling. Because of that we have allocated funds from the lottery to a number of organisations including £150,000 to the Eastern Health Board to establish the Outreach programme so that one to one counselling can be developed in order to do something worth while for drug abusers generally, including AIDS sufferers. With regard to St. James's Hospital, at the moment we are preparing a plan on AIDS. St. James's Hospital has one major specialist unit for the treatment of AIDS. However, the present approach, with which I agree, is that persons suffering from AIDS should be treated in a general hospital by a number of specialists depending on the physical symptoms. AIDS sufferers may have a different number of illnesses, it may be something in their lungs, it may be neurological or Kaprosi Sarcoma. There are many aspects to AIDS——
——it may be cutbacks.
——and it is important that they should have general treatment available to them.
The Minister indicated in his reply that in line with what is happening elsewhere, the numbers suffering from AIDS will double every nine months. Can the Minister say, therefore, that the media campaign was a success? In view of the fact that drug abusers and homosexuals make up the largest proportion of those suffering from the disease, should a more specific campaign have been run? I realise that the Eastern Health Board are running a scheme which attempts to do that but it is the long term. Does there not need to be a more specific approach to deal with this issue?
Deputy De Rossa asks whether I can seriously say that the public information campaign was a success. I can, because in the evaluation that was carried out a high percentage of the people knew how one contracted AIDS. On the question of the number of cases doubling, I said in my reply that this was likely to happen over the next four to eight years. The reason is that the persons who are presenting with AIDS at present would have contracted the disease about eight years ago because the incubation period is anything up to eight years. Therefore, people who contracted the disease at that time are now presenting.
From the figures the Minister has given would he be able to say how many cases have arisen since the media campaign was launched?
All cases who have presented must have contracted the disease before the public information campaign which was launched after we came into office in May 1987. It had been sitting around for a long time but nobody had bothered about it.
You did a good job gutting it.
All cases that have appeared since then would have contracted the illness years ago but it is only now they are presenting with their symptoms. As a result of the public information campaign, I hope that people are aware of how you contract AIDS and that they take the necessary measures to ensure that they do not contract it.
Have you surveyed the matter to see if this is so?
Yes.