14 Nov 2016

Stakeholders converged in Makaleng on November 11, to share information and devise strategies on how to enhance adherence to tuberculosis (TB) as well as HIV and AIDS medication.

Among those attending the workshop hosted by the Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP) were Village Development Committee (VDC) and Parents and Teachers Association (PTA) members, home-based care volunteers, guidance and counseling teachers, traditional doctors, representatives of Ministers’ Fraternal as well health officials from the North East District Health Management Team (DHMT).

Making his contribution, a pastor, Mr Monthe Doba emphasised the need for religious leaders to encourage their members to take their medication as directed by health officials.
Discouraging the habit by some churches to instruct their members to stop taking their medication, he said what churches should instead be doing is to inculcate in their congregations the value of obedience.

Pastor Doba pointed out that being obedient and taking to heart instructions given by health workers was for the good of not only the affected individuals, but also their families and the society as a whole.

The clergyman also cautioned against alcohol and substance abuse; saying this remained a major contributing factor to people’s failure to adhere to treatment.

A traditional doctor Ms Chedza Pagiwa underscored the importance of knowing as well as accepting one’ health status.

She noted that if members of each household knew not only their own status, but also that of other family members it would be easy for them to support each other.

Further Ms Pagiwa admonished fellow traditional doctors against giving people on Anti-Retroviral Therapy traditional medicine as doing so was likely to cause complications for patients.

Ms Ookeditse Seboko, a guidance and counseling teacher at Pelaelo Junior Secondary School said at their school they made an effort to get to know learners on Anti-Retroviral drugs so as to be able to fully support them.

She said building a cordial relationship with the students helped a lot as in instances where it would be difficult for the students to go to health facilities to collect their medication, they as guidance and counseling teachers do so on their behalf.

This, Ms Seboko said contributed greatly towards ensuring that they students adhered to treatment.

For her part, Ms Goitshasiwang Motshabi called for government to desist from discriminating against people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).

She said the current arrangement where PLWHA received HIV and AIDS services away from the rest of the people who visit health facilities contributed to the incidences of poor adherence to treatment.
Ms Motshabi appealed for the integration of HIV and AIDS services to the rest of the services offered in health facilities.

Earlier, an official from the North East DHMT Ms Ikgopoleng Keipidile had called on stakeholders to join hands in helping to improve adherence to medication by those being treated for both TB and HIV and AIDS.

Ms Keipidile said it was worth noting that failure to adhere to treatment could result in drug resistance, amongst others.

She said though counseled before starting treatment that their treatment would be life-long, a lot of people still abandoned their treatment citing pill fatigue.

He encouraged those in attendance to talk to their communities to understand that there was still no cure for HIV and AIDS hence the need for complete adherence to treatment by those on therapy. BOPA