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Palliative and end-of-life care in COVID-19 management in sub-Saharan Africa: a matter of concern

Authors :
Essomba, Marie Josiane Ntsama
Ciaffi, Laura
Etoundi, Paul Owono
Esiene, Agnès
Source :
The Pan African Medical Journal
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
The African Field Epidemiology Network, 2020.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health care systems beyond capacity resulting in many people not having access to life-sustaining measures even in well-resourced countries. Palliative and end-of-life care are therefore essential to alleviate suffering and ensure a continuum of care for patients unlikely to survive. This is challenging in sub-Saharan Africa where lack of trained teams on basic palliative care and reduced access to opioids limit implementation of palliative and end-of-life care. At the same time, health care providers have to cope with local cultural conceptions of death and absence of advance care directives.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
19378688
Volume :
35
Issue :
Suppl 2
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
The Pan African Medical Journal
Accession number :
edsair.pmid..........bb1ef2eb05ddfd1e28901da45226d8e3