Pretoria - To boost the number of people who know their health status, the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development has taken the HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign to the provincial hostels.
More than 300 residents were tested for HIV at the Kwesine and Thokoza Hostels in Ekurhuleni on Sunday where Health MEC Qedani Mahlangu was visiting.
Mahlangu, who was accompanied by Ekurhuleni's Member of the Mayoral Committee for Health, Makhosazane Maluleke, interacted with hostel residents about the importance of knowing their status and using protection each time they engaged in sex.
She also encouraged young males to get circumcised to minimise the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Over 700 000 people in Gauteng have tested for HIV as part of the national HCT campaign launched in April this year to get people to know their status. The province has set a target of reaching 3.3 million people to get tested by June 2011.
Mahlangu said the province has employed the use of mobile HCT services, which visit shopping malls, informal settlements, taxi ranks, community gatherings as well as rural parts of the province where health facilities are not easily accessible.
More than 303 000 patients, including 22 830 children, are currently on treatment in the province and more than one million patients have been assessed and will be brought into the treatment programme when they reach treatment requirements.
"In association with NGO's and other community organisations, the department also takes advantage of any opportunity to encourage people especially the youth to lead healthy lifestyles and know their status," Mahlangu said.
She emphasised that the purpose of the campaign is to diagnose HIV, TB, diabetes and high blood pressure at an early stage in order to get people onto treatment in time.
"Early treatment reduces unnecessary deaths especially from TB and Aids," she said adding that the campaign will be moving to other hostels in the province at the end of the month.
