Aim for Aids-free generation

2009-07-20 10:16

Johannesburg - South Africa must eliminate the mother to child transmission of Aids, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said on Sunday.

"South Africa must ensure that we dramatically decrease the number of infants that are infected so that we can indeed have a generation free of Aids," he said in a speech prepared for delivery at the 5th International Aids Society conference in Cape Town.

"The importance of the virtual elimination of mother to child transmission of HIV was reinforced to me in my meeting with the executive director of UNAids, Dr Michael Sedibe," he said.

"We have begun work on strengthening our PMTCT [Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission] programme and the minister of health will soon officially launch our accelerated plan to ensure that we meet the targets set in the National Strategic Plan for HIV and STIs," he said.

Targets

The National Strategic Plan for HIV and Aids and STIs, 2007 to 2011, drafted under the leadership of the SA National AIDS Council (Sanac), sets targets for halving the HIV incidence by 2011 as well as providing care, treatment and support to 80% of people living with it, Motlanthe said.

He also called for greater attention to be given to Tuberculosis (TB).

"We wish to stress that TB is curable even in the context of co-infection with HIV but additional measures to ensure that HIV patients are tested for TB and TB patients are tested for HIV must become the norm."

Motlanthe said he would propose that Sanac also focus its attention on TB.

He said a World Health Organisation/Stop TB Partnership review of the national TB programme had found that the programme had been strengthened since the last external review in 2005, with improved cure rates and decreased defaulter rates.

However, there were still problems with the programme.

"These include: the need for a more coherent strategy for TB/HIV integration; strengthened infection control; strengthening TB control in the mining industry as well as in the correctional services."

Poverty and TB

Motlanthe also drew attention to the relationship between poverty and TB. He said the country needed "strong social and equitable economic systems to underpin our health systems".

"It is clear that health conditions and outcomes are related to a range of social determinants."

He also mentioned other areas of concern.

"Challenges, however, remain. These include: getting more of our people tested, starting treatment as early as possible, improving adherence, decreasing loss to follow-up, improving laboratory turn-around-times and strengthening drug supply management."

However, he said, each of these areas was "receiving the necessary attention".

- SAPA