The University of Cape Town formally launched a comprehensive HIV/Aids Intervention Programme on Friday for staff who will now receive free anti-retrovirals and counselling.
The plan provides permanent staff and staff with contracts from two years and longer with proactive and ongoing diagnosis, treatment and support at no cost to themselves.
The university’s vice chancellor, Njabulo Ndebele, said at the launch of the programme at Jameson Hall that Aids was ”the shadow that hangs over all our lives” which made sustainable development, particularly in the developing world impossible.
He said Aids had become the most devastating disease humankind had ever faced and was now the leading cause of death in sub-Saharan Africa.
”In South Africa’s case, the enormous political, legislative and delivery challenges faced by the first democratically elected government in 1994 have meant that South Africa’s responses to HIV/Aids have not been as comprehensive or directed as could have been,” Ndebele said.
Ndebele appealed to university management to make their staff aware of the programme and to encourage them to undertake voluntary HIV testing.
”Knowing your HIV status is of utmost importance in the fight against the disease.”
Ndebele said UCT would cover the full cost of the benefits and treatment which was expected to amount to an escalating R1-million a year. – Sapa