05 Nov 2013

Until the country reach the target of zero new infections, combating HIV/AIDS will remain a priority, said President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama.

In his State-of-the-Nation Address, he said government should continue to provide therapy to those in need as there was no substitute for behaviour change among those who still put themselves and others at risk through lack of self-discipline.

He said the incidence of HIV in the country declined by 71 per cent between 2001 and 2011, noting that it was still far too high for comfort. He said the need for greater discipline in defeating the scourge was a message for all generations since government was concerned about the youth who constituted the hope for an AIDS free generation.

“We are thus concerned about some of the results of the 2012 Botswana Youth Risk Behavioural Surveillance Survey, which revealed an array of social ills including the finding that 19.1 per cent had experienced sexual intercourse before the age of 13,” he said.

President Khama said the one group who did not have a choice when it came to HIV/AIDS infection were the unborn, adding that government thus remained committed to the elimination of mother to child transmission, which was currently at or below 2 per cent.

The President said government would continue to have an ARV uptake of about 95 per cent and to cater for the demand by the end of the year. ARV services would be available at all health facilities. He said the outreach was a clear reflection of continued commitment and compassion, it also constituted a serious financial burden, with overall annual allocation for HIV/AIDS now standing at some P1.2 billion.

He said the uptake of safe male circumcision remains low at just over 89 thousand as of August 2013, which represented 23 per cent of the national target of 385 000 men between 13 and 49 years. The President said government was steadfast in its commitment to provide quality healthcare services for all Batswana and a number of initiatives had, therefore, been introduced to improve customer care.

He said focal nurses attended to patients and their families at the point of service in all health facilities while district and referral hospitals now offerred special access to those with special needs such as the elderly and those living with disability. President Khama said government had further extended the operations in an extra four clinics from eight to 24 hours and other initiatives included the introduction of block booking and floor managers.

He said last year’s establishment of a call centre in Gaborone, where ambulances were dispatched from a central point,was also yielding good results and similar centres had now been established in Mahalapye and Francistown. He said as of August 2013, the average availability of vital, essential and necessary medicines at government health facilities was 74 per cent, while the availability of laboratory supplies at Central Medical Stores stood at 100 per cent and efforts to improve access to quality medicines included the decentralisation of dispensing of specialist medicines to clinics.

Lt Gen. Khama said government was also piloting the engagement of private pharmacies for the dispensing of chronic medications to government sponsored patients, which to date has serviced more than 3 000 individuals.

He said the capacity to deliver quality health care, as well as training, would soon be enhanced by the completion of the 450 bed Academic (Medical) Teaching Hospital at the University of Botswana, which would be commissioned at the end of 2014.

The President said government was assessing ways of financing health services with financial and technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO), PEPFAR and USAID and a study was underway to more accurately measure the total cost of providing health services, which would assist in budgeting for an essential health service package.

“To achieve our Millennium Development Goals of reducing maternal and child mortality government has introduced a national Quality Improvement Project to ensure access to quality maternal health services and further efforts to reduce child mortality through the uptake of high impact interventions at household level are underway,” he said.

He said to address the high incidence of cervical cancer, government has piloted the introductions of the HPV (Human Pappiloma Virus) vaccine in Molepolole and the success of this initiative convinced government to prioritise a national roll out. ENDS