Think the Earth

December 1st is the World Aids Day. It is said that one of the largest problems foreign nationals living in Japan would face if they contract HIV is the "language barrier" in the hospitals.

According to the handbook to help medical consultants in offering medical treatment to HIV positive foreign nationals distributed by the research service of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan since last year to hospitals offering AIDS treatment nationwide, 26.6% of HIV-infected patients, and 23.4 % of the AIDS patients are foreign nationals (as of April 2006). When you look at the nationalities of AIDS patients, more than half or 51.6% are from Southeast Asia, and 23.7% are from Latin America (as of the end of 2005).

Not being able to speak Japanese or English, and not having health insurance - you can easily imagine that the situation will be very grave if people in such circumstances contract HIV and develop AIDS, but cannot go to hospitals, and their conditions become increasingly severe.

According to Ms. Lee Sangnim from the NGO, Services for the Health in Asian and African Regions (SHARE) that was involved in creating the handbook, "most of the medical interpretation is provided by NGOs or volunteer groups. Many hospitals are not yet aware of the significance of the medical interpretation, so that they do not have a system to secure the necessary financial resources."

The handbook includes a list of associations that can offer medical interpreters. Ms. Lee says, "I wish this handbook will spread the word about the urgent necessity for a system to dispatch medical interpreters. "