06 Mar 2019

An official of Ministry of Health and Wellness Dr Goabaone Rankgoane-Pono has rallied Central District councillors to sensitise and mobilise their electorate about the impending Botswana HIV/AIDS Impact V and Tuberculosis Prevalence Survey.

When briefing CDC councillors about the imminent BAIS V and TB Prevalence Aurvey, Dr Rankgoane-Pono appealed to councillors to amplify her ministry’s efforts of community mobilisation by way of buy-in and advocacy to render the survey a smooth and successful process.

Dr Rankgoane-Pono, who is a national TB programme manager informed the CDC bylaw makers that the impending survey was expected to start off at the end of March, all things being equal.

However, she pointed out that there was a possibility of the survey starting early April, owing to the unavailability of study gadgets and other equipment.

For a smooth undertaking of the project, the TB programme officer appealed to councillors to help in sourcing secure and safe locations for project staff, their belongings and expensive equipment to be used during the survey.

The survey seeks to examine the distribution of HIV in Botswana, assess the coverage and impact of HIV services at population level and to measure HIV-related risk behaviours.

Further, the study aims to determine point of prevalence of bacteriologically confirmed pulmonary TB in Botswana and assess health seeking behavior for TB related symptoms of individuals aged 15 years and above.

When quizzed about their decision to combine HIV/AIDS impact V study with TB, Dr Rankgoane-Pono explained that TB remained the most common opportunistic infection among people living with HIV. In fact, she elucidated that among TB patients in Botswana, 60 per cent were co-infected with HIV.

In addition, the TB programme manager argued that countries that had conducted TB surveys had discovered that many people lived with undetected TB until some of them were diagnosed late while  others died. She said it was out of such a discovery that a study of this nature is conducted.

Dr Rankgoane-Pono presented to councillors that the HIV pandemic constituted a serious health challenge and remained one of the leading causes of adult morbidity and mortality in Botswana as discovered in BAIS IV, 2013.

She also informed councilors that HIV prevalence was estimated at 18.5 percent whilst incidence was estimated at 1.35 percent. The prevalence, she said, was higher in urban areas (17.6 percent) compared to rural areas (15.8 percent).

In conducting the study, a total of 172 enumeration areas will be surveyed where 16 000 people will be sampled for HIV and 38 000 for TB. Ends