The challenges of the HIV/AIDS epidemic have caught public health officials and medical professionals unprepared. There is an acute shortage of health care providers trained in the prevention, control and management of sexually transmitted infections (STI), including HIV/AIDS.
AIDS patients require comprehensive care across a continuum.This includes clinical and nursing care, counselling and social support from hospital to home. The doctor and other clinicians are a vital link in this continuum.
Effective counselling for example, leads to strong doctor-patient relationship, and makes all the difference in how patients accept their HIV status, how they lead their lives and approach sexual and other relationships. Furthermore, few patient can afford expensive anti retro-viral drugs, yet it is a fact that many opportunistic infections can be treated adequately with standard drugs and thus prolong life in an affordable manner. In addition, AIDS control requires positive health promotion, and knowledge of medico-legal and issues.
All these factors and more are important in good AIDS and STI management and form the basis for this unique Postgraduate Diploma now offered to doctors and other clinicians for the first time in Africa.
The Postgraduate Diploma in The Control and Management of Sexually Transmitted Infections by distance learning offered by the University of Nairobi brings graduating doctors and other clinicians specialized knowledge and skills they need in order to handle the increasing number of sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV/AIDS patients in their daily medical practice.
Without sacrificing time away from their busy clinics, this Postgraduate course enables doctors and other clinicians to gain up-to-date knowledge and skills in an area of growing public health importance; manage all aspects of sexually transmitted infection;specialize in HIV/AIDS management and control; study at a place of their own choice, time and pace within two years; and apply newly-acquired skills immediately to help patients with problems, even as they go through the course.