Health care

HIV: seven-million South Africans tested

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18 April 2011

Over seven-million South Africans have been tested since the launch of the voluntary HIV Counselling and Testing campaign as the government pushes to reach its target of 15-million people who know their HIV status.

The South African National Aids Council (Sanac) said on Friday that over seven-million people had voluntarily been tested since the launch of the campaign in April 2010, a figure they described as "impressive", given that historically, counselling and testing reached only three-million people annually.

Sanac was presenting a progress report on the countrywide implementation of the HIV Counselling and Testing campaign to a high-level delegation including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and Eastern Cape Premier Noxolo Kiviet in East London.

The figure of more than seven-million people tested does not include data of people who were tested in a large number of private health facilities, especially general practitioners in villages and townships.

Most of those who test positive are started on antiretroviral treatment while others, depending on their CD4 count, are urged to visit their health practitioners regularly until such time as they are ready to start treatment.

The campaign aims to support people with key prevention interventions in order to take proactive steps towards a healthy lifestyle, irrespective of people's HIV status, to increase the incidence of health-seeking behavior, and to increase access to treatment, care and support services.

The campaign is being intensified and expanded to schools, workplaces and religious sites, especially over the Easter period.

Sanac said funding from the Global Fund for Aids, TB and Malaria has been approved.

During the meeting, a resolution was taken that Sanac's Resource Management Committee should be co-chaired by somebody living openly with HIV; that local production of female condoms should be investigated; and that the representation of traditional leaders in Sanac should be reviewed and strengthened.

The South African Medical Association has also been tasked to assist Sanac in collecting HIV and TB relevant data from the private sector.

A high-level delegation will represent Sanac at a UN meeting in New York in June 2011.

Source: BuaNews

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