19 Jun 2014

Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing officially closed the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey IV (BAIS IV) results dissemination on June 18.

Dr Seakgosing said the results were a great milestone that would strengthen guidance to interventions against HIV/AIDS over the next four years.

He said a significant amount of resources and time were spent on the planning and actual conduct of surveys such as the BAIS IV but it was unfortunate that fewer resources were put towards the next critical steps that addressed the very reason to conducting such surveys.

Dr Seakgosing encouraged people to use the findings from the survey to make a difference in the country. He said he was aware that other necessary steps that went beyond the statistics were already on going and believe there were still many other areas that needed to be explored using the rich data set.

The minister said his ministry continued to utilise findings from various sources including BAIS surveys to continuously monitor and evaluate the various HIV/AIDS programmess that they oversaw and implemented.

He said the surveys helped them ensure they were on track to realise national goals such as the Vision 2016 goal of zero new infections and global commitments such as the millennium development goals (MDGs), specifically MDG six as well as the elimination of mother to child transmission goal.

The minister said researchers from institutions like University of Botswana needed to be applauded for their continued effort in interrogating data to unearth underlying factors driving HIV and AIDS. He noted the deliberations made would be carried forward to inform upcoming plans such as NDP 11 and the National Strategic Framework III.

He said the findings should be widely disseminated so all would be adequately informed and most importantly empowered to provide evidence based planning. ENDS