Steady decline in HIV rate in EC
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane reported that the rate of new HIV infections in the province had steadily decreased from 35,000 in 2017 to 28,000 in 2020, and the mother-to-child transmission rate was now below 1%.
Mabuyane, who is chair of the Eastern Cape Aids Council, made this announcement at Walter Sisulu University in Whittlesea on Wednesday when the nation recognised World Aids Day.
The focus of this year’s event was to scale up HIV prevention initiatives.
With more than five million people on anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in SA, Mabuyane said the Eastern Cape contributed approximately 10% of the country’s treatment programme, with more than 500,000 on treatment.
“This has had an immense impact on our country’s life expectancy which has improved from 51 to 59 years for men and 55 to 65 years for women within the short space of 10 years,” he said.
“We are also delighted that the preexposure prophylaxis [PrEP] has been made available in all districts in our province.
“We remain hopeful that the injectable PrEP is in sight and will be shortly introduced so that adolescent girls and young women can be alleviated from the burden of having to take the pill daily and the stigma of having to unwillingly disclose to their parents that they are sexually active and using PrEP.”
From the US president’s emergency plan for Aids relief (PEPFAR), consulate general Emily Shaffer said the country had invested more than $8bn (R127.7bn) for HIV/Aids programmes since 2003 through PEPFAR.
“This is the largest commitment ever by one country to address a single disease. Working together with the SA government, the Eastern Cape and numerous local partners we have saved an estimated five million lives and prevented numerous infections.”
Shaffer said the US government had invested more than R627m in the province this year to support HIV and TB prevention, care and treatment, with the Chris Hani district being one of the focus areas.
“With the provincial government, the US government supports more than 380,000 people on HIV treatment in the province in nearly 600 public health facilities. Prior to the pandemic, we were testing 1.2 million people every year in the province.”
She added that the stigma and discrimination against people living with the virus kept them from being tested, seeking treatment and staying on the medication.
She said there needed to be focus on the underlying reasons why men were choosing not to have treatment, encouraging them to take charge of
their health. The department’s strategy to ensure the youth are protected from HIV and Aids culminated in the formation of youth zone facilities around the province to offer safe health spaces for young people.
Mabuyane, together with health MEC Nomakhosazana Meth, unveiled the Whittlesea youth zone, assisted by young people. A range of health services was made available to the public as part of the Thuma Mina services on wheels programme.
Meth said build-up programmes to accelerate prevention consisted of the rollout of the Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) campaign, hosting a prevention summit, a men’s sector pre-parliament session, a behaviour change programme, a health bus launch and the department of health outreaches.