Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi .(Alet Pretorius/Foto24/Gallo Images)
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says South Africa’s HIV/Aids programmes will not collapse despite the withdrawal of funding by the US, insisting that there are existing facilities which can absorb the affected patients.
South Africa is spending R46.8 billion on its HIV programmes, and of that, R7.9 billion is from the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), Motsoaledi told journalists on Thursday.
“It is inconceivable that out of R46.8 billion spent by the country on HIV/Aids programmes, the withdrawal of R7.9 billion by President Donald Trump will immediately lead to a collapse of the entire programme,” he said.
“We must put it categorically clear that under no circumstances will we allow this massive work, performed over a period of more than a decade and a half, to collapse and go up in smoke because President Trump has decided to do what he has done.”
Earlier this year, Trump cut US foreign aid globally, effectively ending funding for HIV/Aids and tuberculosis programmes in South Africa. Researchers in the health sector said this could reverse the gains made in reducing the spread of the virus and the advancement of TB research.
On Thursday, Motsoaledi acknowledged that the funding cuts had sparked stress and fear in the health sector, and among patients, but said existing funding programmes are cushioning the blow.
Pepfar supported the department of health in 27 out of 52 districts across eight provinces — understood to be “high burden”, he said. These districts have 2 772 public health facilities, of which only 12 were independent, specialised clinics, managed by non-government organisations which provided services to 63 322 clients in key populations.
“When the Pepfar-funded clinics were closed … 63 322 files belonging to these key populations were moved to public health facilities,” the minister said.
“It is not only Pepfar which was dealing with key populations clients but other prominent funders like the Global Fund have been supporting the country with health services for these key populations,” he added.
The Global Fund supports 34 designated facilities and has enabled more than 74 000 people from key populations to receive treatment, according to Motsoaledi.
Motsoaledi said 8 061 out of 15 539 workers in the 27 districts funded by Pepfar had lost their jobs. The remainder are still employed — for now — through interim support which will last until September.
The minister said South Africa was still on track to meet the UN’s 95-95-95 target to end HIV/Aids as a public health threat. The target stipulates that, by 2030, 95% of HIV-positive people must know their status, 95% of those who are positive should be put on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and 95% of those on treatment should achieve viral suppression to prevent transmitting it to other people.
“We know that there are 7.9 million people in South Africa who are estimated by UNAids to be HIV positive. At the moment, in terms of the UNAids target, we are at 96-79-94 and today we have 5.9 million people who are on ARV therapy,” Motsoaledi said.
He added that the government’s Close the Gap campaign, launched in March, aims to shift the needle from 79 to 95 by getting 1.1 million people who are HIV positive onto treatment by the end of the year.
So far, 520 700 have been started on treatment, Motsoaledi said.