Members of the Executive Council present;
Honourable Mayors;
Members of the Mayoral Committees for Health;
Members of the Gauteng Provincial and Local AIDS Committees;
Representatives of SABCOHA;
Heads of Departments and Senior Managers;
Representatives of Civil Society;
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen
We live in a country besieged by severe HIV and AIDS epidemic with the highest concentration of people infected found in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. Since the year 2000 there has been a steady increase in illnesses and deaths exerting tremendous pressure on our healthcare services. This increase in deaths and illnesses pose serious threat to our economic infrastructure especially if one considers the centrality of the economic position that Gauteng province occupies.
Owing to illnesses which are in the main the result of HIV infection the young and economic active people spent much of their time visiting medical consultation rooms and clinics. The epidemic is slowly but surely robbing us of the young beautiful minds and the able-bodied who under different set of circumstances would be making a healthy contribution to the welfare and economic development of our Province and the country in general.
If this situation is not urgently attended it has a potential of causing unprecedented misery as a result of plummeting productivity level that will inevitably have a crippling effect on the economy.
For a small province such as Gauteng, the situation is exacerbated by numerous social factors such as in-migration, unemployment, poverty and substance abuse that contribute and drive the increase in HIV incidence. Moreover the inequalities prevalent in our society turn women and young girls into objects of abuse, violation and exploitation by those who harbour beastly tendencies on them. A number of orphans and vulnerable children left to fend for themselves are rising on our watch. Increasingly, many young women and men are driven to transactional sex as a means to survival.
This reality forces us to diagnose our moral standing and critique the evolution of new lifestyles that alienates us from that which is acceptably civil and human. Our actions or inaction today will determine the kind of communities we want to build and the type of society we would like to create. It is the choice that we have to make today as we deliberate in this gathering.
The Gauteng AIDS Summit is the platform that allows us to face harsh reality and make a choice of either halting the deadly impact of HIV and AIDS on its prowl or continue to bury our heads into the ground with a hope that it will come to pass. But if we are conscious and convinced that we are faced with a threat of genocide, we would know that we have no better chance or choice but to approach this Summit with an attitude of a soldier whose sole intention is to decimate the enemy and prevent genocide from occurring.
As we engage, consult and move towards the adoption of the Gauteng Strategic Plan on HIV, TB and STI for 2012 to 2016, we must not loose sight of the ultimate goal, defeating HIV and AIDS in our lifetime.
However, we find solace in the fact that our commitment in this fight have seen the establishment of a coordinated and well ochestrated effort involving Gauteng government departments, five municipalities, 11 sectors of civil society, business and organised labour. As a result of this collaboration, we have been able to make serious inroads in a fight against HIV and AIDS and TB infections. We understand that new HIV infection among youth leads to an increase in HIV and AIDS incidence. Consequently, we have been spurred to action and fought to reduce new infections amongst youth by half through life skills training in schools, voluntary testing, educational media campaigns and positive peer and family influence.
Through the PMTCT programme alone, we have witnessed the drop in transmission standing which was between 11% to 14% and reduced to 5%.The infection in babies has been reduced by more than half from 11.6% to 2.3% through the implementation of health services for pregnant women. Owing to the partnership and collaboration with civil society, business and labour organisations, we have already reached over seven and half million people per year with education on safe sex, TB and AIDS as well as social support for people living with HIV and affected families. We also tested three million people for HIV and TB during the HIV counselling and testing campaign in 2010 and 2011 and provided social service and support to about 40 000 orphaned and vulnerable children.
The number of AIDS deaths that peaked in 2007 has reduced substantially since the introduction of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in 2004. We now have 340 clinics and hospitals which provide ART with trained professional nurses to initiate and maintain ongoing ART programme.
It is this kind of work and achievements, small as they seem, that should motivate and give us more reason why we should continue to fight. We cannot afford to be complacent because that will only serve to strengthen the deadly hand of HIV and AIDS.
Ladies and Gentlemen
As we move forward, it is our expressed intension to reduce new HIV infection by half in 2016. This goal will be possible to achieve if we place emphasis on combined prevention measures. These covers issues of social change which are attitudinal and social drivers of HIV infection such as poverty and substance abuse, behavioural change and medical care.
Furthermore, we need to develop a general consensus on health programmes to reduce deaths and disabilities from TB and AIDS. This calls for the intensification of health screening (HCT) for all chronic diseases in all clinics and high risk wards. We also need to reduce delays in diagnosis and treatment and increase both economic and nutritional support for People Living with HIV (PLHIV).
Our efforts in persuading everyone to test for HIV and TB voluntarily and following up those who fail to continue with treatment should be intensified. The community organisations and municipalities should extend the ward based programmes which provide education and referrals for poverty relief, healthcare and social services.
Program Director
This summit in its deliberations must address concrete issues that will make a tangible change in our struggle against the epidemic. These cannot be conjured up since there have researched and included in the proposed Gauteng Strategic Plan on HIV, AIDS and TB for 2012-2016. This strategy is the document meant for consultation and adoption in this gathering today. Our participation in the Summit should therefore be understood as a way to recommit ourselves to the intensified interventions that are outlined in the draft strategy.
As you do the work in the commissions, I urge you to focus on the key challenges to be addressed in the next five years and desists any distraction that seek to sway us away from the achieving the intended goal. We should build on what we have achieved while at the same time asking ourselves what we should do differently to attain the following:
- Reducing the rate of new HIV and TB infections now in order to reduce TB and AIDS illness and deaths in the future.
- Stop preventable deaths from TB and AIDS in mothers, babies and adults.
- Support orphans so that children affected by AIDS have adequate opportunities to develop into their full potential.
In closing, I hope you are all going to put your shoulder behind the wheel and ensure that we build a society that the coming generation will be proud of. What we do and achieve today will shape the future that our children will inherit.
I wish you constructive and fruitful deliberations in your commissions.
Dankie. Ngiyabonga.
Enquiries:
Xoli Mngambi
Cell: 082 373 1146
