SA 'ignoring Aids prevention'
2010-03-08 14:11
Special Report
The availability of the antiretroviral (ARV) tenofovir has improved in Gauteng over the past weeks, the provincial health department says following a report that some provinces were running low on ARVs.
Johannesburg - Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi on Monday said he was worried that South Africans did not appreciate that prevention was the best treatment against HIV/Aids.
"President [Jacob] Zuma made two far-reaching statements on World Aids Day, he made a strong statement about prevention and a strong statement about treatment regimes, but after World Aids Day South Africans were only talking about the one," Motsoaledi said at the release of the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria's 2010 report.
"That's what is worrying me. I am saying treatment must only come after prevention... We are worried that South Africans seem to be thinking that we have arrived [after the World Aids Day announcement]."
The minister said prevention was the mainstay of fighting against any disease and only once that had failed should treatment became paramount.
HIV treatment budget up 33%
He said this year's budget for HIV treatment had increased 33% - the highest increase any department had received.
Motsoaledi said he was concerned that if the government had to keep increasing the amount it allocated to the illness, there would be nothing else being funded.
"This makes our war of prevention extra important."
The Global Fund had contributed R400 000 to South Africa's HIV/Aids treatment regime.
South Africa was currently treating 920 000 people for HIV/Aids at state hospitals.
The Global Fund would this year request replenishment on its budget to continue its work.
Aids, TB, malaria
In September three years ago, it obtained $10bn to respond to requests by countries to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria.
The fund's executive director Professor Michel Kazatchkine said the current economic context in which the fund was approaching its donors was "very difficult", due to many countries emerging from, or still in recession.
In March it would present donors with three financial scenarios, ranging from low to high, requesting either $13bn, $17bn or a high of $20bn. In October the fund would know how much it was receiving from donors to fund projects for the next three years.
- SAPA