This, after the Positive Action Campaign and Treatment Action Campaign have embarked on inspections at public healthcare facilities in the Free State following reports of HIV treatment shortages. The General Secretary of the Positive Action Campaign, Sello Mokhalipi, told OFM News that they have noted a massive shortage of ARVs in the province to a point where some patients have reportedly been without treatment for a period of about four months. He says it is appalling that the shortage of HIV-treatment is something they constantly have to raise with the department without much being done about it.

He says they will keep monitoring different facilities across the province to identify where there is a need for urgent intervention and elevate the matter with the new Health Minister, Dr Zweli Mkhize, should the provincial department not come to the table. Mokhalipi, says it is also concerning that the office of the MEC has thus far not responded to their memorandum of demands, which was handed to her representative last week during their march.

OFM News previously reported that concerns over the shortage of vaccines, contraception and HIV medication is mounting. This, as the Stop Stockouts Project (SSP), a consortium of six civil society organisations that monitors medicines' availability in healthcare facilities in South Africa, confirms that the country is still experiencing a shortage of the DT (Diphtheria and Tetanus) vaccine. These vaccines are critical to help with the building of antibodies in children.

The consortium said a number of public healthcare facilities are currently running on a buffer stock, and that the current supply in most facilities does not meet the demand, similarly with the availability of ARVs across many provinces.

The provinces of Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, and the Free State are amongst those with enormous shortages.

OFM News