The Gauteng Provincial Government will drastically increase the number of people on Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) from 247 000 people in December 2009 to 400 000 by March 2011.
This was announced by Premier Nomvula Mokonyane at the opening of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature on Monday.
She added that there would be an increase in the number of ART sites from 73 to 113 by March 2011 as well.
“Our programme for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV has resulted in the reduction of the number of children who are born HIV-positive from 9.6 percent from January to September 2008, to 6.3 percent from January to September 2009, which indicates the efficacy of dual therapy,” said Mokonyane.
This year the government will intensify the mass campaign on HIV counselling and testing to extend the percentage of people who know their HIV status from 51 percent to 70 percent.
It will further increase the TB cure rate to 80 percent and all people with TB and HIV will be treated under one roof.
In order to further reduce deaths of HIV positive mothers, Mokonyane said the government would start treatment for HIV infected pregnant mothers with a CD4 count of 350 or with symptoms, regardless of CD4 count.
All pregnant women who are HIV positive will be on treatment at 14 weeks of pregnancy to protect their unborn babies. Antiretroviral treatment will also be administered on children younger than one year old if they test HIV positive, irrespective of their CD4 count.
The number of eligible people for antiretroviral treatment has increased from 185 126 in the last financial year to 226 253, while the number of children on treatment has increased from 16 029 in past financial year 2008/09 to 18 869 in the first six months of 2009/10.
In addition, Mokonyane said the province would ensure that help desks were established at the entrances to public hospitals in an effort to eradicate unnecessary waiting.
“This initiative will ensure that patients are directed to relevant departments,” she said, adding that hospitals will also begin to retrieve patient files from records a day before the appointment date.
An SMS service will also be launched in which patients will be reminded of their appointments.
“In the past six months, the availability of medication has improved from 85 percent to 92 percent,” she said.
Mokonyane attributed this to the improved monitoring and weekly recording of stock-outs.
Availability is being improved even further and we aim to achieve our target of 99 percent availability of essential drugs for each facility, she said.
Issued by: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government
22 February 2010
Source: Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government (http://www.gautengonline.gov.za)
