The first registered hospice for terminal AIDS patients in Taiwan opened yesterday, providing free medical and consulting services to 11 patients and their families.
The hospice, which is sponsored by Christian organization The Garden of Mercy Foundation (
"We provide holistic care, medicines, social work and family visits," said the foundation's executive-general May Chyou (邱淑美), "We have no discrimination against AIDS patients and will respect their privacy."
Located in a quiet spot in Taipei County, the hospice is not open to the general public and there will be no logo or references to AIDS, on the building or its vehicles, in an attempt to preserve privacy and not antagonize neighbors.
Presently, three AIDS patients transferred from two hospitals are waiting to move into the hospice, Chyou said.
The first Taiwanese person found to have AIDS was diagnosed in 1986. Now, there are 2,895 people who are said to have contracted HIV, of which 100 are couples infected by each other; 53 are hemophiliacs who were infected by blood transfusion, say the latest official statistics.
Doctors say that as many as ten times that number of people could be infected, or up to 29,000 people in the country.
"AIDS has become the second biggest epidemic in Taiwan since its emergence 14 years ago," said director-general at the Center for Disease Control, Twu Shiing-jer (
Of the current 2,895 AIDS/HIV patients in Taiwan, 941 have fallen ill and 615 have died. "There are 326 patients who have fallen ill and are still alive," said Chyou, "The highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), the so-called cocktail therapy, has proved to be effective in reducing viruses in the patients' blood, but it cannot cure the disease ... They will need care, especially hospice care," Chyou said.
The concept of hospice care was introduced to Taiwan in 1990 and presently there are 15 hospitals with hospice care wards, with a total of 216 beds. These hospice care wards, however, target only terminal cancer patients.
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