Khayelitsha Aids Clinic treats 1 000
Seshoane Masitha
6 May 2004
The Khayelitsha Aids Clinic, selected by the World Health Organisation as providing a model antiretroviral (ARV) programme in a resource-poor setting, now reaches 1 000 patients.
The clinic, which began operations in the Cape Town township three years ago, is the result of a partnership between the Western Cape health department and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international organisation of doctors that provide health services in poor communities worldwide.
Last week, MSF and the University of Cape Town presented an annual activity report on HIV/Aids in Khayelitsha and the status of its rollout programme.
One of the persons currently on ARV therapy at the clinic is 16-year-old Nonqaba Qotoyi, who was raped by her uncle in 1994, when she was six years old. She discovered her HIV-positive status in 1997.
Qotoyi, who has been on the treatment since 2002, said: "I would like to say thank you to the clinic, my mother and the support
group because they gave me strength."
According to the annual report, 25% of pregnant women tested for HIV/Aids at the clinic last year were HIV-positive.
The report also stated that Khayelitsha has the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the Western Cape, accounting for 20% of TB cases in the Cape Town metropolitan area in 2002. TB is the second most common opportunistic infection - after oral candidiasis (thrush) - and the commonest cause of mortality in the clinic's HIV-infected patients
Since last year, 17 024 people were tested in Khayelitsha, of whom 4 928 or 31% were found to be HIV-positive.
Dr David Coetzee of UCT's Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit said 250 people had been put on ARV therapy since the beginning of this year.
"People put on ARV therapy are those whose CD4 count is less than 200, which is stage three or four", Coetzee said. "The criteria we use is that they need to attend the service regularly and also have support at
home", he added.
Coetzee said that treatment was vital before the CD4 cell count became low. "The lower the CD count, the more compromised their immune systems are", he said.
Much of the success of the Khayelitsha Clinic, according to Coetzee, was due to the mobilisation of the community around the stigma attached to infected and affected people.
MSF said the challenge was to expand HIV treatment services to rural areas.
"MSF has formed a partnership with the Eastern Cape department of health and the Nelson Mandela Foundation to demonstrate the feasibility of providing comprehensive HIV services, including ARV therapy, in rural settings, with 30 patients already receiving treatment in Lusikisiki", the MSF said in the report.
Source: BuaNews
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