08 Dec 2019

The high number of patients on anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in the Kgatleng District poses a challenge in supporting the infected and affected, Minister of Infrastructure and Housing Development, Mr Mmusi Kgafela has said.

 In his address at the district World AIDS Day commemoration held in Mabalane on December 5 , Minister Mmusi urged Batswana to create a positive environment by providing physical, emotional and spiritual support for the affected and infected to realise their potential.

“This will create a platform for them to disclose their HIV status to their partners and hence be motivated to live positively with HIV/AIDS,” he said.

He further said the nation needed to fight against stigma and discrimination amongst people living with HIV/AIDS.

Mr Mmusi, who is also MP for Kgatleng West said statistics indicated that currently the district had a total of 13 472 patients on therapy, adding HIV prevalence rate also remained high at 19.9 per cent.

He also encouraged people to change their attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS as another way of reducing vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

Also, he noted that fear of rejection made it difficult for individuals to access HIV information and early treatment and that compromised government’s efforts in the fight against the scourge.

Further, he encouraged people to know their status saying that was the first step in fighting HIV/AIDS.

Mr Kgafela noted that in the second quarter of 2019, about 6 387 people tested for HIV in Kgatleng and encouraged men to double their efforts as only 2 825 of those tested were males.

The minister said prevention remained the best option in curbing the spread of HIV.

He said the Botswana AIDS Impact Survey (BIAS) Report IV 2013 indicated that 370 000 people in Botswana were living with HIV with the national prevalence rate of 18.5 per cent.

Government, he said had come up with various HIV/AIDS intervention strategies including safe male circumcision (SMC), adding Kgatleng was leading as 741 males had been circumcised, against a quarterly target of 566 and annual target of 2 265, thus urging all to play a role in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The event, he said provided an opportunity for Botswana to reflect on its successes and setbacks since 1985 when the first case of HIV was discovered in the country.

Minister Kgafela said the theme; Communities Make the Difference, challenged all to strengthen their community based interventions in the fight against the scourge.

Deborah Retief Memorial (DRM) hospital superintendent, Dr Boago Didimalang said since January this year, 325 people tested HIV positive.

“And we have had 26 AIDS-related deaths since beginning of 2019 to date,” he said, adding 193 people were currently on ARV treatment in Sikwane and surrounding villages.

Dr Didimalang said challenges they faced included the high number of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) cases they treated, adding that  high number of infections indicated that a high number of people were engaging in unprotected sexual intercourse.

He said their wish was to have individuals at least test once every year.

“We are also looking to decrease the frequency of times patients come to get their medication, because the current arrangement of every month seems to have a lot of huddles and patients end up missing some dates and it affects their health,” he said. ENDS