National Consultative Conference on HIV and AIDS
14 March 2007
Programme Director,
Deputy President,
Ministers,
MECs for Health,
General Secretary of Cosatu and representatives of business and civil society
groups and
All stakeholders in the national response to HIV and AIDS
Honoured delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
Let me take this opportunity to acknowledge my colleague, Minister Manto
Tshabalala-Msimang who played a critical role in the development of the new
National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS that we are going to discuss at this
conference. As you know, I was appointed by the President last month to ensure
that this process and all other health programmes continue while Minister
Tshabalala-Msimang is recovering at the hospital. As government, we wish her a
speedy recovery.
We are gathered here today in what I regard as a major landmark in our
efforts as the people of South Africa to respond to HIV and AIDS. HIV and AIDS
is a major challenge facing us and it has affected our lives in many different
ways.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAIDS) and the World
Health Organisation estimated the number of people living with HIV at the end
of 2006 to be 40.3 million worldwide. This represents a 7.5% increase since
2003 estimates put the figure at 37.5 million. While approximately 10% of the
world's population lives in sub-Saharan Africa, the region is a home to at
least 65% of all people living with HIV-including 77% of all women living with
HIV.
Gender inequality, poverty and underdevelopment are some of the major
factors influencing this disease pattern. Since 1994, efforts have been made by
our democratic government to address these historical challenges.
Several programmes form the thrust of government interventions and ensure
greater access to education, health services, alleviation of poverty,
empowerment of women, and the provision of basic services such as shelter,
clean water and sanitation.
Growing a job creating economy is critical in ensuring sustained development
and this emphasises the need for programmes such as the Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (AsgiSA) which is ably led by our Deputy
President.
A lot of progress has been made in trying to address the challenge of HIV
and AIDS through the implementation of our previous National Strategic Plan for
HIV and AIDS for 2000-2005.
Commitment of financial resources, for instance, has been phenomenal during
this period, with the government spending priorities showing an increase from
R264 million in 2001/02 to R1,5 billion in 2005/06 financial year. Available
funds are expected to increase to around R7 billion in 2010/2011 for the public
health sector only.
Prevention campaigns are being enhanced to strengthen the promotion of
abstinence and being faithful, while more than 380 million condoms are being
distributed annually. Voluntary counselling and testing services are available
in more than 4 000 centres. At least 83% of clinics are providing services to
prevent mother to child transmission of HIV and we intend to reach 100% by the
end of this year.
More than 480 000 people have benefited from nutritional supplementation.
Treatment of opportunistic infections which is critical in the management of
HIV and AIDS is available in most hospitals and clinics including get free
testing and treatment for TB.
Antiretroviral treatment is now available at 293 health facilities spread
across the country and has enrolled 245 670 patients by December 2006.
Yesterday, together with the Deputy President, we visited clinics that are
providing antiretroviral therapy in Cape Town-one in Vangaurd and the other in
Gugulethu. I was very much impressed about the outstanding work that is being
done at these facilities. Besides the high number of people that these clinics
are treating about 2000 people on treatment each they have established a very
good network of treatment supporters which has enabled them to reach treatment
compliance of about 94%.
While we recognise the progress made, we also acknowledge the challenges
that have to be addressed. Of particular importance is the need for
strengthening of the health system as this is fundamental to the provision of
quality health care to our population including people living with HIV and
AIDS.
We have to address the issue of shortage and uneven distribution of health
professionals in the country. We also have to ensure that the Hospital
Revitalisation Programme covers those institutions where there are significant
challenges as a result of deterioration of the infrastructure and high demand
for services.
The reduction of the prices of medicines and other essential commodities
remains a very critical area of intervention. Affordability of these
commodities is critical in improving accessibility and sustainability of
treatment interventions. We also have to encourage innovation and ethical
research into additional tools for responding to HIV and AIDS.
We are encouraged by the significant progress that has been made by the Task
Team in further developing the Strategic Plan that will be presented to you
later this morning. The Task Team was made up of people with different
expertise in the area of HIV and AIDS from government, business and civil
society.
We believe that the spirit of renewed partnership amongst all role-players
in the response to HIV and AIDS has assisted the Task Team to work with vigour
to ensure that the draft plan is ready for presentation to you today.
In addition to various sectoral summits that have been held, this conference
has been convened to ensure that every stakeholder has an opportunity to make
an input into the development of this plan. We have gone through this extensive
consultation process to ensure that all of us as a nation take ownership of the
final document that will ultimately be adopted by the new South African
National AIDS Council.
This is a country plan and therefore it should encompass, as much as
possible, inputs from all of us as role-players. More importantly, it should
also enjoy our collective commitment as various sectors in contributing to its
successful implementation.
We believe that the draft National Strategic Plan that will be presented
this morning provides a sound basis for a fruitful discussion for this
conference.
The National Consultative Conference brings together a wide range of
perspectives-from government, non-governmental organisations, academic,
corporate and community-in finalising the draft National Strategic Plan on HIV,
AIDS and STIs 2007â2011 and demonstrates collective effort and united action in
the management of HIV and AIDS.
We have to agree on key priorities for the next five years including efforts
to intensify the implementation of existing programmes and develop new
strategies which could further accelerate progress.
As you will notice in the presentation, the National Strategic Plan includes
ambitious targets to reverse the course of HIV and AIDS over the next five
years. The discussion on targets will also lead us to deliberations on the
amount of resources required to implement strategies to meet these targets
within the specified period.
These bold targets reflect our commitment to combat HIV, AIDS and STIs and
achieving them will require intense collective effort by every one. Most
importantly, reaching these targets requires individual behavioural change and
responsibility from all of us.
I would like to wish all of us fruitful deliberations at this conference and
I hope this should lead to our collective endorsement of South Africaâs new
National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS and STIs for 2007-2011.
Thank you
Issued by: Department of Health
14 March 2007
