HIV: one-million South Africans tested

22 July 2010

About one-million South Africans have voluntarily tested for HIV since the launch of the country's HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign earlier this year.

Updating delegates attending the 18th International Aids Conference in Vienna this week on South Africa's efforts to combat HIV/Aids, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said more people had been able to access the treatment they needed as a result of the campaign.

He said 70 605 South Africans had started antiretroviral treatment (ART) since the launch of the testing campaign in April.

"We anticipate that 1.65-million more people will be diagnosed HIV-positive," Motsoaledi said, adding that the campaign would provide them with the information and interventions they needed to manage their health and to prevent further HIV transmission.

"Through rapid TB screening and CD4 counts, the campaign also seeks to ensure that those patients requiring treatment are fast-tracked onto the treatment programme. In light of this, we have planned for an enrolment of an additional 500 000 patients onto ART by March 2011," he said.

The campaign, launched in April, has a target of testing 15-million people by June 2011.

Leaders including President Jacob Zuma, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Motsoaledi and other cabinet members, provincial premiers and leaders of civil society have voluntarily undergone tests in order to encourage others to do the same as well as to help de-stigmatise HIV/Aids.

New treatment protocols

On World Aids Day last year, Zuma announced the government's intention to introduce new treatment protocols in South Africa, in line with World Health Organisation recommendations.

The objectives of the new protocols, implemented from 1 April 2010, include that pregnant women and people co-infected with TB and HIV be treated at CD4 counts of 350 or less, that infant children of HIV-positive mothers be treated regardless of their CD4 count, and that prevention of mother-to-child transmission start at 14 weeks into pregnancy.

All public TB treatment sites in South Africa now also have to test and treat for HIV, and vice-versa, while the government has begun to integrate all aspects of its HIV programme with its maternal and child health programme.

Source: BuaNews

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