We have come a long way together in the fight against HIV and Aids. We have managed to make great strides and that is witnessed by our improvement of our life expectency. This should begin to give confidence to all of us that HIV is not a life sentence.
Taking an HIV test is stressful. While waiting for your results, your heart starts to race, your hands sweat and your mind weighs up the two very different outcomes.
During the launch of HIV Counselling and Testing (HCT) campaign in 2010 President Jacob Zuma acknowledged that taking an HIV test is “not easy”. He added: “It is a difficult decision to take. But it is a decision that must be taken by people from all walks of life, of all races, all social classes, and all positions in society. HIV does not discriminate."
As nerve-racking as an HIV test may be for some, it is crucial to know your status. Therefore this coming Sunday on World AIDS Day, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, chairperson of South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) will mark the event by encouraging South Africans to: “Get wise. Get tested. Get circumcised.”
In line with this theme, the day will be used to revitalise the 2010 HCT campaign and to launch the Medical Male Circumcision campaign.
Over the past three years, the HCT campaign has been extremely successful with more than 20 million people being tested. South Africa now has the largest HCT programme in the world.
The revitalised campaign will build on this success by continuing to encourage South Africans to get tested for HIV at least once per year in order to make informed decisions on preventative measures, treatment, care and support.
However, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is concerned that “it is mostly women who have come forward for testing” with the figures showing that only a third of those tested were men.
The lack of testing among our men is also reflected in the uptake of antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. A consortium led by Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS) found that 80 per cent of eligible HIV positive women are on treatment in comparison to only 65 per cent of eligible men.
Hence we call on all South Africans and men in particular to join our HCT campaign. Some may be hesitant to get tested for HIV because of concerns over privacy. Our health personnel at our 3 540 public facilities are trained to respect the privacy and dignity of people and all results are treated with confidentiality.
To those who test negative, we would like to urge you to continue protecting yourself. However, if you are HIV positive, President Zuma had the following words of support: "HIV is not a crime and is no longer a death sentence. That is why we announced …measures …, to enable South Africans to manage the condition and live productively."
The “measures” consist of comprehensive services which were implemented since 2010. As part of these services, all patients with both TB and HIV are placed on ARV treatment if their CD4 count is 350 or less. In addition, pregnant HIV positive women with a CD4 count of 350 or with symptoms regardless of their CD4 count also start with immediate treatment. Lastly, children younger than one year automatically receive treatment when testing positive.
Government scaled up its ARV treatment programme and this is beginning to show positive results. The 2013 Mid-Year Population Estimates released by Statistics South Africa show that South Africans’ life expectancy increased from 56.8 years in 2009 to 59.6 years in 2013.
Currently 2.4 million South Africans are receiving ARV treatment and we are on course to meet our target of 2,5 million by 2014. Earlier this year, we have also improved the lives of those receiving treatment by reducing their daily “ARV cocktail” of three pills to one tablet. The new single dose ARV regime is not only revolutionary, but extremely affordable costing R89.38 a month per patient.
In addition, South Africa has now become the lowest price setter for ARVs in the world. Our HIV drugs tender, which was initially valued at R8.1 billion, was reduced to R5.9 billion and this saving allows more patients to be treated with the same budget.
Another success Health Minister Motsoaledi reported on last month in Parliament, was the decline in mother-to-child rate of HIV transmission from 8 per cent in 2008 to 2 per cent last year. He added that the Department aimed to reduce the rate to just 1 per cent by 2015.
Our continuous efforts to prevent new HIV infections are guided by our National Strategic Plan on HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Tuberculosis 2012 – 2016 which is also aligned to the 2030 objectives of the National Development Plan.
One of the preventive measures promoted in the National Strategic Plan is Medical Male Circumcision (MMC). According to the UNAIDS, this procedure has proven extremely effective in reducing the risk of HIV infection by approximately 60 per cent.
Since 2010 an estimated one million men have undergone MMC, but Health Minister Motsoaledi is aiming for 4 million by 2015. The Minister stated that to reach this target, government will launch “the biggest circumcision” campaign on World AIDS Day to encourage men to be circumcised.
As a country, we have come a long way in our fight against HIV, but sadly we continue to struggle to eliminate the stigma attached to it. Former President Nelson Mandela once said: "Many people suffering from AIDS and not killed by the disease itself are killed by the stigma surrounding everybody who has HIV/AIDS.”
Stigma stems our fight against HIV and we need communities to support and care for those living openly with HIV and prevent a situation where people are ostracised due to ignorance.
Government will continue to implement initiatives to reach zero new infections, zero discrimination, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero new vertical transmissions. However, on the 25th anniversary of International World AIDS Day, government calls on all South Africans to: “Get wise. Get tested. Get circumcised.”
Phumla Williams is Acting CEO of the Government Communications and Information System (GCIS)
