23 Jan 2017

Nursing superintendent in Kgatleng, Ms Senzeni Monosi says they have registered satisfactory numbers of infected people since inception of the treat all programme last year.

Speaking in an interview, Ms Monosi said Kgatleng District Health Management Team (KGDHMT) started implementing the treat all strategy fully by mid-July 2016 although the programme was launched in June.

She said they ensured that they put together logistics to sensitise service providers on the guidelines and made plans on how to handle the entire process to avoid customer complaints and staff burn-outs.

She said enrollment numbers had increased, adding that they used to enroll 155 to 180 patients per quarter but doubled the number to 406 for the first three months of the programme introduction.

She said prior to the treat all programme, in 2014/15 most of the Kgatleng health facilities were already providing ARV adding that the move made it easier for the dispensation of the antiretroviral and decreased congestion of patients.

“ARV roll-out was long done and achieved in 2014/15, out of the 27 facilities, 24 of them are providing prescription and dispensing serving on site and only three are providing dispensing services,” he explained.

Ms Monosi said the treat all programme was beneficial since it prevented new infections, re infection, reduced the risk of transmission to partners, and reduced the risk of mother to child transmissions.

 She said these could be achieved through viral load suppression and taking of medication and adhering to treatment.

“The role of the treat all strategy is to control the HIV epidemic by 2020 and ending of AIDS by 2030. By 2020, 90 per cent of people living with HIV will know their status, 90 per cent of all people receiving ARV therapy will have sustained viral load suppression.

Botswana has adopted the above targets and the country is measuring itself against such and these have been cascaded to all districts,”  Ms Monosi said.

Meanwhile,  Ms Monosi said they have had a total of six defaulters; four in the first quarter of last year and two in the second quarter.

She added that Kgatleng has registered a total of 6 200 HIV positive people in 2015/2016, 3 736 males and 2 465 females.

She said they are positive the strategy will yield fruits in the fight of ending the epidemic, as the programme will help reduce the number of deaths of HIV positive patients. She urged families to be supportive to patients and end any traces of stigma.

“In the past we have had cases where HIV positive patients who were to monitor their CD4 count were reluctant to do so and will only be seen coming with opportunistic infections and some ended up dying.

Again mother to child transmission will be reduced as the mother will be on ARV full time, her viral load will be monitored every three months and there will be no infection at any stage of child care.”  MsMonosi reiterated. BOPA