10 Nov 2015

President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama says the Botswana National Strategic Framework II (NSF II) mid-term review has underscored the fact that behaviour change remains the key to stopping the spread of new HIV infections.    

Delivering the State-of-the-Nation Address on Monday, President Khama said as a strategy to help achieve such, Community Acting Together to Control HIV (CATCH) had been developed to galvanise community support in reaching the“zero infection” goal.

He said more than 90 per cent of HIV/AIDS positive persons that were eligible for anti-retroviral therapy (ARV) were on treatment. 

He added that in line with the 2013 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, in April this year, the government extended lifelong ARV treatment to all HIV positive pregnant women regardless of CD4 count.

“We are at an opportune time for achieving HIV/AIDS epidemic control by as early as 2020. Taking into consideration international best practices, discussions are ongoing on how to best achieve epidemic control in a sustainable manner,” he said. 

President Khama said the “test and treat” concept implied that every person who tests for HIV shall be put on treatment irrespective of their CD4 count. 

“In addition to providing viral suppression, this form of treatment will also reduce HIV transmission,” he said, and appealed for continued support moving forward.

He said in an effort to achieve zero new HIV infections, discrimination and AIDS related deaths by 2016, Botswana this year became one of the three countries confirmed by the Guinness World Record as having set the new record of the most people having tested for HIV in multi-venues in eight hours. 

That, he said, was a positive move towards having 90 per cent of all residents knowing their HIV status, adding, however, that with the  current HIV testing prevalence of 63 per cent there was still a lot to be done.

“Here let me once more note that while we are firm in our commitment to providing for HIV/AIDS testing and therapy, the ultimate answer to stopping the spread of this terrible virus lies in us exercising self-discipline in our behaviour,” he said. Ends