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Department makes headway in fight against HIV/AIDS
Nadene Parsons. 21 November 2004. Sunday Tribune. Republished courtesy of Independent Newspapers (Pty) Ltd.
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In March, KwaZulu-Natal did not have a government programme for getting HIV-positive people on to anti-retroviral treatment.
However, in the past seven months, the provincial Department of Health says, it has made good progress.
Dr Chris Jack, a director in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, says that as of November 5, the department had 3 247 adults and 167 children (aged from three to 15 years) on anti-retroviral treatment, while 25 036 people had been screened for the treatment programme.
"Since we started, we've had rapid progress," he said. ack said there was enough scientific evidence to support the decision that if a person's CD 4 count was above 200, their immune system could still cope with most opportunistic infections and did not need anti-retroviral treatment.
Anti-retroviral drugs would be given to a person whose CD 4 count, which measures the strength of the immune system, was less than 200, he said.
"This treatment is a lifetime commitment. The drugs are not a lifesaving therapy. They just help to rebuild the immune system," Jack said.
Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and the national government have come under severe international and local criticism and pressure for their arguments about the link between HIV and AIDS and for delays in rolling out a national anti-retroviral programme while people were dying.
The national cabinet approved the Operational Plan for Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Care, Management and Treatment last year and provincial departments have been working on it to get treatment to the people who need it.
The World Health Organisation released a report this year which said that 5.3 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The report estimated that 370 000 people would die from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses in South Africa this year.
A concern that HIV/AIDS activists had was that treatment targets and timelines should be set and made public knowledge. The Treatment Action Campaign led a national protest earlier this month, demanding that the government be transparent about what it was doing in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
For Jack, in KwaZulu-Natal - the province reputed to have the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the country - anti-retroviral treatment involved more than just taking medication.
"This a comprehensive treatment plan. We want people who are HIV negative to stay that way and those whose CD 4 count is above 200 to remain that way for as long as possible. A big concern for us is patient literacy."
The plan was based on educating and was expected to "engender a new approach to health".
He said patient literacy involved being educated about the disease, its implications, clinical and dietary assessments and anti-retrovirals.
"This is an important process. In the United States, people have to make new drugs because patients are continually developing a resistance to them," he said.
A way to avoid that happening here was to teach people about the importance of staying on the programme, he said.
Hospitals had to also be equipped with all the necessary resources before getting accreditation to administer anti-retroviral treatment. In the province's 11 health districts, at least two hospitals in each district have been accredited for the anti-retroviral treatment plan.
Districts like Uthungulu had six hospitals. eThekwini had eight. Jack added, though, that people could make access to treatment easier by streamlining the work load into other areas of the public health system.
"You could go to Umlazi Clinic for an HIV test, for example, instead of going to Prince Mshiyeni Hospital. The more people become aware of how to use the health services, the more efficient our provision can be," he said. |
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