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March 09, 2010
Focus ‘must be on HIV prevention’
Luphert Chilwane
Business Day
The government needed to intensify its campaign to reduce new HIV infection rates as it could not sustain big increases in its budget for HIV/AIDS treatment, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday. Speaking at the release of this year’s Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria report in Johannesburg, Motsoaledi said it was important to refocus on efforts to prevent mother-to-child transmission and to set priorities for government interventions. He said the government provided voluntary counselling and testing at most public health facilities, but use of the service had remained a major challenge.
“This year, our budget for health was increased by 33%. We cannot keep on doing that because our entire (departmental) budget will end up being on HIV/AIDS treatment programmes,” he said. “Regardless of the budget we have, we cannot win this battle unless we strengthen our prevention methods ... and cut by half the new infection rates by 2011.”
For the 2010-11 financial year, the government allocated R105bn compared with R86,9bn in the 2009-10 budget, he said.
About 920000 patients were receiving antiretroviral treatment and the aim was to increase this to 2-million in 2012-13.
Professor Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund, an international organisation that provides funds to developing countries to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, said when the fund was established in 2003 many patients in developing countries did not have access to anti-retroviral treatment.
“But now, 4-million have access and 6-million have received TB treatment,” he said.
The transmission of infection from mother to child could be eliminated by 2015.
He said SA had contributed R76m to the Global Fund and the fund had disbursed about $271m for SA’s programmes.
Kazatchkine said about 400000 patients in SA benefited from treatment programmes funded by the Global Fund.
According to the Global Fund report, between 2007 and 2008 the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment in SA increased about 53%, from 458951 to more than 700000.
“As the treatment coverage increased, mortality rates, which had been increasing rapidly in previous years, stabilised,” the report states.
Kazatchkine said the prevailing economic context in which the fund was approaching its donors was “very difficult”, as many countries were emerging from recession or were still in recession.
Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, the United Nations’ AIDS programme, said 94% of people on treatment were funded by donor organisations.
“The fight is not over yet, we should strive for zero new infection and save the lives of many people,” he said.
About 1500 new infections were reported in SA every day.
Motsoaledi said prevention was the main weapon in fighting any disease. Only once that had failed would treatment become paramount.
The minister would hold a media briefing next week Thursday to elaborate on the government’s World AIDS Day announcements. With Sapa.
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