08 Mar 2018

Police in Mahalapye have been urged to utilise available health facilities to disseminate information on HIV and AIDS and help government in realising its dream of fighting new HIV infections.

Addressing Mahalapye Police Occupational Health and Safety Committee on Tuesday, ARV coordinator from the District Health Management Team (DHMT), Mr Bobby Molebatsi said the fight against HIV and AIDS required concerted efforts by all stakeholders. 

Mr Molebatsi said the AIDS virus weakened the immune system of a human body and as such other opportunistic diseases like Tuberculosis would take advantage of the situation. He said based on the journey travelled since recording a first case of HIV in the 1980s  and interventions put in place to fight the disease it will be unfortunate to record new HIV cases. 

“With the numerous interventions of disseminating information in place and available health facilities, we do not expect new cases of HIV.” 

Mr Molebatsi said police officers were at risk of getting or spreading the virus while in line of duty and therefore appealing for precautionary measures to be taken when attending to people at accident scenes and other situations as may be required by the job description. 

For his part,Senior Superintendent Bonang of Mahalapye police appealed to committee members to make sound decisions and test for HIV, know their status and educate their peers on the dangers of AIDS. END