at a Red Cross Symposium on home-based care, Boksburg
6 April 2006
Programme Director,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you for your invitation to attend this symposium and I am glad that I
am able to join you this morning.
You may be aware of the eigth World Conference on Violence Prevention and
Safety Promotion, which ended yesterday in Durban. This conference, which was
held for first time in Africa, highlighted the need for all of us to address
the triple burden of diseases affecting Africa.
Africa is facing a huge burden of communicable disease such as Malaria,
Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV and AIDS, which the world health response has tended
to focus on.
Unfortunately, the chronic diseases of lifestyle are escalating in our
continent without much global attention. The conference in Durban highlighted
injuries, disabilities and mortality associated with various forms of violence
as a major public health problem.
Therefore, our discussions on health need to take these issues into
consideration. We have to ensure that we address all the major causes of death
in our society and allocate resources in manner respond to the range of health
problems facing us.
I know that Red Cross and Red Crescents are involved in a number of
programmes on disaster management and various humanitarian operations. Thank
you for your outstanding work and for collaboration with governments in
assisting people who are devastated by various forms of disasters. Your work
through the flying doctors is also commendable.
I remember the good initiative in which the Department of Health worked with
Red Cross in distributing donations made by many South Africans to destitute
families as part the caring together campaign during the World AIDS Day in
2003. We need to promote these types of collaborations and to work together in
addressing various social challenges facing our communities.
Home- and community-based care is a central tenant of the care component of
our comprehensive response to HIV and AIDS. This service is provided mainly
through non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations
(CBOs). Currently there are more than 2 000 home- or community-based care
projects countrywide.
The objectives of the home/community-based care programme are to:
* To ensure access to care and follow up through a functional referral
system
* To ensure that children and families who are affected and infected by HIV and
AIDS access social welfare services within their communities.
Government provides financial and technical support to a large number of
NGOs that provide these services. The Department of Health in particular has
increased the budget allocated for support of NGOs involved in the response to
AIDS and TB from R49 million in 2005/06 financial year to R56 million in
2006/07.
There is a need for more and more partnerships with community based
organisations and non-governmental organisations. We need support of all
sectors, faith-based organisations (FBOs), private sectors and others in our
society in order to address this developmental challenge.
As you know in addition to the care and support our comprehensive response
to HIV and AIDS also covers the areas of prevention, treatment, research and
human rights. Prevention of new infections is the mainstay of our response and
our prevention interventions focus particularly on our young people as they are
the future of this country.
Building on the high levels of HIV and AIDS awareness in the country and in
line with the resolution of Afro region of the World Health Organisation (WHO),
we have declared 2006 as the year of accelerated HIV and AIDS prevention. We
are intensifying communication and behaviour change messages and interventions
targeting particularly those groups that still pose a challenge in terms of the
risk of transmission and spread of HIV.
In order to boost the prevention strategy we have doubled the number of
health facilities providing Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) from 1 500
in 2003 to about 3 700 in 2004. The number of people that have utilised this
service also increased from 691 000 in 2002 to 1,3 million in 2004. This
service is available for everybody and we should encourage people to use it to
know their HIV status.
We believe that taking good care of your health can prolong the progression
from HIV infection to development of AIDS defining illnesses. It is therefore
important to encourage people to take care of their health by engaging in
physical activity, stop smoking and avoiding alcohol and substance abuse.
The message to encourage healthy lifestyle should be spread to all our
people in order to promote good health and prevent diseases.
Good nutrition is critical in maintaining good health and prolonging life.
Nutrition involves more than availability of food but also consumption of
certain amount of nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.
Through the implementation of the comprehensive plan for management, care
and treatment of HIV and AIDS there are now service points in every district
for the provision of a range of interventions including prevention, nutrition,
management of opportunistic infections and treatment with antiretroviral drugs.
Efforts are underway to intensify the research and development of African
traditional medicines which demonstrate effectiveness in alleviating conditions
associated with HIV and AIDS.
The investment in the health system through infrastructural upgrades, the
improvement in commodity stock management, information management systems, the
improved human resources management and capacity development, the strengthening
of laboratory services and referral system is being increased
significantly.
Most of these interventions are funded from the government fiscus. The HIV
and AIDS budget allocation channelled through the Health Department increased
from R264 million in 2001 to R1.5 billion in 2005. This led to the United
Nation (UN) Secretary, General Kofi Annan, commending the country for
substantial increase in budgetary allocation in his last report to the UN
general assembly special session on AIDS.
In the build up to yet another United Nations (UN) Special Session on HIV
and AIDS next month, South Africa has participated actively in the global
discussion to review progress made in the fight against HIV and AIDS. South
Africa participated in the Global Steering Committee convened by UNAIDS to
identify challenges and seek measures to achieve universal access.
We worked hard as a country to broaden the definition of universal access to
encompass prevention, care and treatment as critical elements of a response to
HIV and AIDS. I am glad that this comprehensive approach, which has been
championed by the South African government for many years is beginning to gain
broader support.
There is no doubt that much progress has been made in addressing the
challenge of HIV and AIDS in the country. There are indeed challenges which we
have all acknowledged and are seeking ways to address them. As we make
presentation to the UNâs next month we need to share our best practices with
the world and learn from the experiences of fellow UN member states.
We need to ensure appropriate projection of the work done by many South
Africans and their government in curbing the spread of HIV infection and
reducing the impact of AIDS.
Once again thank you for your invitation and I wish fruitful deliberations
during this symposium.
Thank you for listening to me.
Issued by: Ministry for Health
6 April 2006
