28 Jan 2015

Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Kolaatamo Malefho has called on Batswana to behave well and practice safe sex in order to stop the spread of HIV/ AIDS.

Briefing members of Ntlo ya Dikgosi on January 27, Dr Malefho stated that communicable diseases continued to worry his ministry with HIV/AIDS taking priority.

He said 30 per cent of pregnant women in Botswana were HIV positive, something which was a worrying factor as some had decided not to enroll on Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) programme.

He further stated that non-communicable diseases had also grown at an alarming rate; hence he encouraged people to eat well, exercise and avoid eating too much sugar and salt in order to fight those diseases. Dr Malefho said there were areas in Botswana where malnutrition continued to haunt children. 

That, he said, should not be the case since the ministry had come up with interventions to eradicate it by doubling up food ratios given to vulnerable children. Dr Malefho further encouraged women to go for routine testing and assessments of cervical cancer.

When responding to Kgosi Mosadi Seboko’s question on what intervention had been put in place to control HIV in discordant couples so that it did not get transmitted to the other partner who was HIV free, Dr Malefho pointed out that the ministry encourages all to stay away from anything that could expose them to the virus.

However, he stated that global research had proven that chances were low for one to contract the virus when the partner takes ARV’s which could lower the viral load.

Therefore, he said some partners end up taking risks and having babies. ENDS