23 February 2006
The Department of Health's effort to manage sexually transmitted infections
(STIs) and influence sexual behaviour through the annual STI and Condom
awareness week is beginning to render positive result, said Health Minister Dr
Manto Tshabalala-Msimang today.
Minister Tshabalala-Msimang was speaking in Ladysmith, KwaZulu-Natal at an
event to mark the end of this year's national STIs and Condom week. The week
featured community events, television adverts and radio campaign to highlight
the importance of preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections and
promoting the use of condoms.
The theme for this year was - "Just the two of us can prevent STIs" - which
aimed to inspire individuals to seek STI treatment before they infect or
re-infect their sexual partners. The campaign's messages promote abstinence and
faithfulness, and also advocate correct and consistent condom use and partner
notification among sexually active people.
STIs increase the risk of HIV infection and some may lead to infertility
particularly amongst women.
"Statistics from the SA Health Review and from other sources indicate that
as a nation and as sexual partners, we have become better at partner
notification - the rate has doubled from 39% in 2000 to 83% in 2004.
"The percentage of patients whose partners were subsequently treated has
increased from 15% in 2000 to 24% in 2004. This indicates that we are moving in
the right direction, but it is not enough. We are going to push harder and
ensure that both partners ultimately visit our health facilities for
treatment," said Minister Tshabalala-Msimang.
The prevalence of STIs such as syphilis is also on the decline. In 1999, the
Department of Health recorded an incidence of 7.3% for syphilis infection among
pregnant mothers attending public sector antenatal clinics. By 2004, this
figure had dropped to 1.6%.
"This is a very significant drop in the prevalence rate of this particular
STI and it is an indication that our public health awareness campaigns and
treatment interventions are becoming effective," said Minister
Tshabalala-Msimang.
The distribution of free male and female condoms approved by SA Bureau of
Standard for quality is increasing.
"We realised that people found the packaging for the previous public sector
condoms unappealing. We redesigned these condoms to a funky blue-and-yellow
Choice brand and distribution has been increasing ever since rising from 150
million in 1997 to more than 300 million last year. Female condom distribution
also rose from 1,3 million in 2003 to 2,6 million in 2004," said Minister
Tshabalala-Msimang.
The Minister of Health appreciates the support and active participation of
many South Africans in this campaign. We will continue to use the STI/Condom
week as a period to intensify our focus on prevention and management of STIs,
abstinence, being faithful to one partner and consistence use of condoms.
Contact:
Sibani Mngadi
Cell: 082 772 0161
Issued by: Department of Health
23february 2006
