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joya banerjee [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
South Africa: Top five recent successes in HIV
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Jun 15th, 2011 - 10:46:18 |
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http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?Reportid=92931
SOUTH AFRICA: Top five recent successes in HIV
Photo: Antony Kaminju
Making progress
DURBAN, 8 June 2011 (PlusNews) - South Africa's
HIV/AIDS programme has come a long way from the dark days of denialism
and deadly treatment delays. Francois Venter, chairman of the
country's bi-annual HIV conference, SA AIDS 2011, gave IRIN/PlusNews
five reasons to be happy about the countrys progress:
1. Testing - About 12 million people in South Africa have been tested
for HIV in the past year, representing just under a quarter of the
total population.
2. Antiretroviral prices - ARV drug costs have been halved in the past
six months, because of the countrys recently negotiated ARV tender.
HIV is now one of the cheapest chronic conditions to treat in the
South African public health system.
3. Treatment - Nearly 1.4 million South Africans are on ARVs - still
less than half of those in need. But of the 1.4 million on treatment,
400,000 were initiated in the past year. The programme hopes to have
2.3 million on treatment by the end of 2012, according to Venter, who
is also deputy executive director of the Wits Institute for Sexual &
Reproductive Health, HIV and Related Diseases. Over 5 million South
Africans are living with HIV.
At present, 1,668 public health facilities provide ARVs in South Africa.
4. Tuberculosis - South Africa has finally begun to tackle TB.
Although about 70 percent of TB patients are co-infected with HIV, TB
has been the orphan of the health world for decades, Venter told
IRIN/PlusNews.
[TB] has been mismanaged and hasnt been given the resources it
deserves. For the first time, its being regarded as the emergency it
actually is, he said. For the first time, were seeing the drugs and
the diagnostics; we need to now start making sure that the health
system is one that allows us to start to tackle it.
5. The re-engineering of the primary healthcare system - Venter called
this initiative one of the most profound changes planned in the past
20 years. Expected to be community-driven, the restructuring of local
health districts is set to increase access to HIV care and treatment.
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