31 Jul 2017

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Ms Botlogile Tshireletso has implored residents of Mahalapye and the community at large to get tested for HIV, get treatment and live healthy lives.

Ms Tshireletso was speaking at the launch of the Anti- Retroviral Treatment Uptake campaign-‘CheckAstatus’ in Mahalapye recently.

The theme of the event was, Zero New Infections, Zero Opportunistic Infections and Zero HIV Related Deaths by 2030.

Ms Tshireletso said since the launch of the Treat All strategy June last year, Mahalapye Sub-district Health Management Team (DHMT) tested and enrolled 596 on ARVs.

However, she said the numbers fell short of 3 728 set target and urged the community to get tested so that those needing treatment could be duly assisted.

That way, she said the upward trajectory of the epidemic would be reversed and also achieve zero new infections, zero opportunistic infections and zero HIV related deaths by 2030.

For the country to turn HIV tide around, Ms Tshireletso said stakeholder participation was key as well as the need to sharpen outreach activities in collaboration with health clinics and community leaders to mobilise and encourage the community to test and start treatment.

She noted that ART upscaling was a government initiative to ensure that those who were HIV positive took medication irrespective of their CD4 count. She said the Treat All strategy sought to boost HIV testing services and provision of universal access to ARVs.

Further, Ms Tshireletso said the strategy complemented The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) targets geared towards controlling the HIV/AIDS epidemic, such as the 90-90-90; which outlines that 90 per cent of people living with HIV should know their status, 90 per cent of those positive be on ARVs and 90 per cent of those on ARVs should have suppressed the virus.

She said Botswana started the ARV programme in 2002 while the programme commenced in Mahalapye in 2005.

The sub-district, she said currently had 19 488 clients on ARVs out of a population of 118 000 which translated to 23 per cent prevalence rate and put Mahalapye DHMT as the third highest HIV prevalence in Botswana out of 46 facilities.

Due to the statistics, the Ministry of Health and Wellness had tasked Mahalapye DHMT to identify 3 728 HIV positive individuals and put them on treatment by end of September, Ms Tshireletso stated. ENDS