04 Mar 2014

Chairperson of Serowe Administrative Authority (SAA), Mr Bafana Motseothata has expressed concern over the increasing number of new infection cases of HIV/AIDS in the district.

Addressing Serowe Sub-council meeting on March 3, Mr Motseothata said the District Health Management Team (DHMT) report stated that there were 10 416 clients on Anti-Retroviral treatment as of December 31, 2013.

He said the DHMT report further stated that there were 10 178 clients on treatment as of June 30, 2013 adding that there had been an increase of 238 clients.

“Despite health education and community counseling, new infections are still reported as evidenced by the increasing numbers of clients on ARV,” he said. He said it was a cause for concern since the country was supposed to be moving towards zero new infections.

Thus, he called on councillors to work with DHMT to intensify community mobilisation and education on Safe Male Circumcision (SMC) because the procedure reduces the risk of men being infected by HIV by 60 per cent.

Since the inception of SMC in 2009, he said the programme had experienced a challenge of inadequate number of clients, mainly because of fear of pain and complications.

On other health issues, he said Serowe had so far recorded six cases of Malaria and that three were local transmissions while the other three were imported cases.

He urged councillors to request their constituents to take necessary precautions by cutting vegetation and destroying standing water bodies near their residences in which mosquitoes may breed.

Meanwhile, he said he was disappointed by the partnership between Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) and Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) for the turnkey programme as they were supposed to have started construction of 47 houses for the financial year 2012/13 and to date they had not completed a single structure.

He further said SHHA beneficiaries owe Council a substantial amount of money and urged councilors to encourage defaulters to pay. ENDS