Overall HIV prevalence is no longer increasing as significantly as it was in the early 1990s, Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said on Thursday.
”Particularly encouraging is that the prevention messages regarding abstinence, faithfulness and condom use are being taken to heart, especially by the young,” she said.
The remarks were in a speech prepared for delivery at a meeting in Benoni to review the progress South Africa has made in relation to the Declaration of Commitment on HIV and Aids adopted by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV and Aids in 2001.
There is a need to sustain the positive sexual behaviour that is emerging among the youth into early adulthood and beyond.
”As part of our activities to mark 2006 as the year of accelerated HIV and Aids prevention, government will intensify its interventions targeted at particular risk groups, including people between ages of 25 and 29 years,” she said.
There is also a need to intensify interventions aimed at improving the socio-economic status of women, people living in informal settlements and other vulnerable groups.
”We have to pool together our efforts and complement each other in order to achieve universal access to prevention, care and treatment programmes.
”The first few cases of HIV and Aids were identified in the 1980s. But it was not until leadership from the national liberation movement, led by the African National Congress in 1992, that there was a tangible effort to develop a programme to raise awareness in society,” she said.
”The people in the periphery are the ones most at risk of infections and of succumbing more quickly to diseases than the well-nourished and affluent communities.”
Over the past 11 years, much has been achieved in addressing these historical challenges.
Prevention programmes have been scaled up to ”unprecedented levels” and through the implementation of the comprehensive plan, there are service points in every district for the provision of a range of interventions, including prevention, nutrition, management of opportunistic infections and treatment with anti-retrovirals.
The HIV/Aids budget allocation channelled through the Department of Health increased from R264-million in 2001 to R1,5-billion in 2005.
The number of health facilities providing voluntary counselling and testing has increased from 1500 in 2002/03 to more than 3 700 in 2004/05 with the numbers of people using them increasing from 691 000 in 2002/03 to more than 1,3-million in 2004/05.
”There are many services that we provide as government to delay the progression from HIV infection to development of Aids defining illnesses and to maintain optimal health for people living with HIV and Aids.
”We firmly believe that delaying this progression is the critical area where we need to make maximum impact,” the minister said. — Sapa