Cape Town - Government has set a target of having 80 percent of HIV-positive people in the country on antiretroviral treatment by 2011.
President Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation Address in Cape Town on Wednesday, also said that government would, also by 2011, aim to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50 percent.
Mr Zuma said government was concerned at the deterioration of the quality of health care, aggravated by the steady increase in the burden of disease in the past 15 years.
He said government had to work together with stakeholders to improve the implementation of the Comprehensive Plan for the Treatment, Management and Care of HIV and AIDS which aims to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50 percent by the year 2011.
"We have set ourselves the goals of further reducing inequalities in health care provision, to boost human resource capacity, revitalise hospitals and clinics and step up the fight against the scourge of HIV and AIDS, TB and other diseases," President Zuma said.
During his budget speech on February, former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel allocated an additional R932 million to the Health Department's HIV and AIDS grant in the 2009/2010 financial year.
These funds were expected to be used to screen more pregnant women for HIV and to phase in an improved drug regimen to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission.
Over 630 000 people are on government's anti-retroviral programme currently and the Medium Term Expenditure Framework provides for an increase to 1.4 million by 2011/12.
