Eighty health facilities in the North West Province will be implementing the new policy on preventing and treating HIV in the next three months. The province is busy with assessment of 49 new sites to offer antiretroviral in addition to exiting 31 offering ARVs. People on ARV treatment in the province will also increase from 83 770 to 132 081.
The department has also twenty eight community based organisations and 90 public health facilities accredited as part of down referral programme. These sites refer stable patients to community based organisations and public facilities where quality Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care, Management and Treatment (CCMT) can be continued thereby ensuring monitoring of drug adherence and tracing of patients who default treatment.
This strategy is consistent with the World Health Organisation’s recommendation that health care systems urgently shift from acute, hospital-based care to community based and patient cantered chronic care. Also as part of the new policy, all HIV positive pregnant women and patients on tuberculosis (TB) treatment including MDR and XDR with a CD4 count of 350 or less as well as HIV positive infants now receive ARVs at health facilities that offer the service.
In addition, HIV positive women who are not eligible for ARVs (CD4 count above 350) now receive Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) at 14 weeks of pregnancy instead of 28 weeks as it was previously done. This will assist in ensuring that babies are born uninfected with HIV. Furthermore in this new treatment plan, all HIV positive women who are not eligible for ARVs (CD4 count above 350) will also receive among other things, an annual pap smear. All other HIV positive people who do not fall in the above categories will continue to receive ARV treatment when their CD4 count is 200 or less.
Enquiries:
Tebogo Lekgethwane
Cell: 082 929 9958
Issued by: Department of Health and Social Development, North West Provincial Government
19 April 2010
