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#NWbudget: More people on ARV treatment

───   LUCKY NKUYANE 13:26 Thu, 18 Jul 2019

#NWbudget: More people on ARV treatment  | News Article

The North West Health Department says a whopping 268 065 people living with HIV/AIDS in the province are on the antiretroviral treatment in 2019 as compared to 176 260 in 2013/14.


This is according to the MEC for Health, Madoda Sambatha, who delivered his maiden budget vote speech in the Provincial Legislature in Mmabatho on Thursday 18 July 2019. He says his department plans to increase this number of treatments to more than 300 000 in this financial year. He adds that the under administration department is on track with reducing maternal-child transmission of HIV. Sambatha says there is now less than 1% of HIV exposed infants against the target of 1.5% tested positive at around 10 weeks of age.

“The North West Department of Health will focus specifically on the prevention and management of HIV, TB, cancers and mental illness,” says Sambatha. “In the past year the number of sites providing multi-drug resistant (MDR) TB services were increased from 6 to 15,” he adds. During his tabling of the department’s budget, after it was put under administration in 2018, Sambatha says Tuberculosis (TB) treatment has improved with the introduction of the new Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB drug Bedaquilline, which shortens the treatment period from 24 to 9 months.

Sambatha further says this regimen change has improved treatment adherence and the treatment success rate has increased from 52% in 2012 to 59% currently. “The 90-90-90 strategy for HIV and TB remains a priority for the department. This strategy is based on the rationale that there is an estimated number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and TB in the province and the aim is to ensure that 90% of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) know their HIV status, that 90% of PLHIV are initiated and remain on treatment, and 90% of those on ART are virally suppressed,” he added. “For TB management 90% of high-risk groups are to be screened for TB, 90% of those with TB are to be initiated on treatment, and 90% are successfully treated,” Sambatha added further.


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