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Palliative Care is…

  • Treatment to prevent, relieve, or reduce symptoms without affecting a cure.
  • Offered throughout the course of a chronic or life-threatening illness, including at the end of life.
  • Attentive to medical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs.
  • Not intended to replace disease-fighting treatments, such as chemotherapy for cancer or antiretrovirals for HIV, but to augment comfort and support to individuals who are living with long-term illness and their families.


Adapted from Palliative Care for People with HIV/AIDS, produced by the Center for Palliative Care Education. The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine has additional resources.

While palliative services have become a common provision in healthcare in much of the West, they remain almost wholly unavailable to patients in transitioning and developing countries. It isn't just that health professionals in these countries lack resources and training needed to provide palliative care, but that their view of healthcare is more traditional and narrower in scope.

AIHA is proud of its accomplishments in helping healthcare providers at our partner institutions overseas to implement the patient-centered philosophy and practices of palliative care. AIHA's activities in palliative care build local capacity to allow healthcare professionals to integrate palliative care into the clinical services they are already providing.


Russians Living with HIV Express Need for Care

Sasha Volgina, a native of St. Petersburg, describes how she learned she was HIV-positive: "A doctor said to me, 'You have AIDS. You will die.' I lived like that for six months, without any support." Six years later, she has found the support she needs and advocates for others living with HIV/AIDS as well. At an AIHA workshop on HIV/AIDS palliative care in April 2005, Volgina (above, center, with two other trainers from the workshop)shared her perspective with Russian healthcare providers. Read more.


AIHA Partnership Brings a New Specialty to Latvia

In a country where medical professionals have traditionally shielded even adult patients from bad news by withholding diagnoses of life-threatening illnesses, these children's books are subtle evidence of big change. Created by the pediatric palliative care team at Children's Clinical Hospital in Riga, Latvia, "The Story of Me" helps care providers talk to young cancer patients about their illness. The book is but a small example of how an AIHA partnership between Riga and St. Louis, Missouri, ushered in a whole new perspective on caring for sick children and adults alike. Read more.


HIV/AIDS Twinning Center Bolsters African Palliative Care Association

The African Palliative Care Association (APCA) was founded in June 2004 to promote the availability of palliative care for those affected by HIV/AIDS. AIHA's HIV/AIDS Twinning Center has partnered with APCA to provide technical assistance in curriculum development, information and communication technology, and other areas crucial to APCA's ability to serve as a regional resource. With Twinning Center support, APCA will develop and disseminate standards for palliative care, curricula for training care providers in aspects of palliative care, and advocacy guidelines. It will also provide start-up aid and mentoring to national palliative care associations across the continent. In addition to direct support to APCA, AIHA will support a "south-south" partnership between APCA and the nascent Palliative Care Association of Zambia.



Updated on December 5, 2005



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