29 Jan 2013

Matshelo Community Development Association (MCDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tebelopele Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre to improve accessibility of health services by commercial sex workers.

MCDA programme manager, Ms Gaolape Makgarapa said commercial sex workers would test once a month as a group at a specific area.

Speaking at the Francistown District AIDS Multi Sectoral AIDS Committee (DMSAC) meeting recently, Ms Makgarapa said though commercial sex work was illegal, there was need to ensure that health services were availed to sex workers as they formed part of the population.

She said another MoU would be signed with the District Health Management Team (DHMT) to ensure access to services in public health facilities.

Secretary of the technical advisory committee, Ms Dominique Shephard reported that the district registered 863 new ante natal clinic attendees for the third quarter out of which 168 were HIV positive.

She said out of the 214 infants who were tested at six weeks after delivery only one tested HIV positive.

On the routine HIV testing, Ms Shephard said out of the 4 227 people who tested, 3 666 were HIV negative while 561 tested positive. She explained that the statistics did not include those from Tebelopele and BOCAIP.

She said in the same quarter, 11 new clients enrolled in the Community Home Based Care (CHBC) and the total number of CHBC clients stood at 70.

She said they recorded a decrease in the number of new TB diagnosis in the third quarter as compared to the second quarter. She also explained that in the second quarter, there were 74 people diagnosed while in the third quarter there were 60. 

Ms Shephard reported that the overcrowding that resulted in long queues and limited resources deterred people from adhering to treatment. She also observed that although people aged 35-44 were the most affected, children were the most vulnerable to TB because of their weak immune systems.

Another decrease, she said, was recorded in the number of Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs). In the third quarter, 2 627 cases were recorded while 2 886 cases were recorded in the second quarter. She said in the third quarter 117 427 condoms were distributed by health facilities.

Ms Shephard said 92 new teenage pregnancies were registered in the third quarter indicating a decrease of 16 compared to the second quarter and she attributed the decrease to the strengthening of Youth Friendly Services.

Acting district commissioner, Ms Stephonia Dingwe appealed to sectors not to depend on the HIV/AIDS support funds, but instead come up with ways of sustaining their projects in the event of limited funding from donor agencies.

She however said the war against HIV/AIDS should continue even when the funds from the donors would have been depleted. ENDS