27 Nov 2013

The Francistown assistant district AIDS coordinator (DAC), Mr Thatayaone Maithamako has said a total of 7 044 people that went for testing in the city’s testing centres between April 2012 and March 2013 tested HIV positive.

Speaking at the Francistown District Women’s Day conference recently, Mr Maithamako said in the same period 37 336 went for testing at Botswana Christian AIDS Intervention Programme (BOCAIP), Tebelopele, District Health Team Management (DHTM) and Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital.

He explained that 21 683 females went for testing and 3 605 tested positive, while 15 653 males tested and 3 439 were positive. Mr Maithamako said 14.7 per cent of the people aged 15-49 who tested were found to be HIV positive.

The Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and ARV coordinator, Mr Victor Letsholathebe encouraged expectant mothers to register early at the health facilities because the PMTCT programme started at three months of pregnancy.

He said although PMTCT was optional, expectant mothers needed to understand it reduced the chances of the foetus getting HIV to less than one per cent. Mr Letsholathebe said the programme was faced with challenges such as HIV positive mothers defaulting the six weeks’ postnatal check-up where the default rate was 60 per cent.

He said the other challenge was that Sexually Transmitted Illnesses (STI) made the fight against HIV difficult and that children born to mothers without identity cards (Omang) could not enroll in the programme.

Earlier on, Dr Lekhoasa Setloboko of Veterinary Medical Clinic said the fight against HIV and AIDS needed the right behaviour, tools and skills. He said even if the right tools such as condoms, testing and ARVs were available, if the behaviour was not right then the fight would be futile.

“Behaviors such as hanging out at the bars will not help because it is not aligned to the objective of staying negative,” he said. Dr Setloboko urged parents to spend time with their children in order to monitor and influence them positively. He said parents should be open, honest and engage their children in their daily routines. ends