Africans are dying of AIDS without pain relief

Millions of people in Africa are dying of AIDS without any pain relief, despite oral morphine being one of the cheapest drugs in the world, a conference was told this week.

The conference, organised by the Diana Princess of Wales Memorial Fund and Help the Hospices and held in London this week, heard how legal obstacles made morphine hard to get, while lack of training of health professionals prevented prescribing of the drug at the level of the community.

The demand for oral morphine and other drugs to manage pain and to control …