Date: 11/07/2004
Source: Ministry of Health
Title: M Tshabalala-Msimang: Opening SA stand at International AIDS conference
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT THE OPENING OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN HIV AND AIDS STAND AT THE BANGKOK CONFERENCE, Thailand, 11 July 2004
We feel very honoured as the South African delegation to be here in Bangkok to participate in the 15th International Conference on AIDS. The logo that has been created for this conference features three elephants - to symbolise the commitment of three significant tiers in response to HIV and AIDS - community, family and HIV and AIDS workers. It also represents the three programme tracks of this conference - Scientific, Community and Leadership.
Today, and for the duration of the conference, we would like to share our experiences as South Africa in response to HIV and AIDS as well as TB from these three perspectives. We also expect to learn a lot from the experiences of other countries and delegates gathered here. It is only through sharing of best practices that we can strengthen the global response to the major health problems facing the world.
Through this exhibition, we want to showcase some of the interventions we have made as a country to respond to some of these challenges. We believe that this exhibition will serve as a window to the South African HIV and AIDS as well as TB landscape. It should show the delegates a strong cadre of people who share a genuine caring ethic and a feeling of fellowship - both of which are intrinsic characteristics of our nation. We believe that the exhibition will demonstrate a truly South African response to the epidemic summed up by one slogan: "Khomanani - South Africa, Caring Together for Life".
We have made progress as a country in responding to the challenge of HIV and AIDS guided by our Strategic Plan for 2000-2005. This strategic plan has four pillars, which are:
* Prevention
* Treatment, Care and Support
* Research and surveillance
* As well as Legal and Human rights
We discussed our experiences on the successes and difficulties we have faced in implementing this strategic plan at the previous two international AIDS conferences in Durban and Barcelona.
This is the first international AIDS conference to be held since our Cabinet adopted what we call the Comprehensive Plan for Management, Care and Treatment of HIV and AIDS in November last year. While we have made significant progress in its implementation, we hope that the deliberations here will assist us in enhancing the implementation of this Comprehensive Plan.
In the absence of a cure, the Plan emphasises the centrality of prevention in our national response to HIV and AIDS. It requires us to sustain and scale up prevention efforts.
We are intensifying our programme to encourage especially young people to abstain from sex and those who are sexually active to be faithful to one partner. We are proactively marketing the free high quality male condoms provided by government and their distribution has increased by 80% over the past six years (from 150 million in 1997 to 270 million in 2003).
We have also increased the budget for HIV and AIDS communication campaign called Khomanani Caring Together from R90 million to R165 million over a two-year period. Our communication activities are focused at providing detailed information on how HIV is transmitted and can be prevented; knowing your HIV status; and the holistic management of HIV and AIDS including details about when and how anti-retroviral treatment can be taken.
Our Comprehensive Plan also emphasises the strengthening of the national health system for it to sustain a series of interventions aimed at mitigating the impact of the disease. More health professionals are being recruited to support implementation at both national and provincial level.
Like other developing countries, we are facing challenges in acquiring adequate staffing levels mainly due to inadequate numbers of certain categories of health professionals in the country, limited number of people experienced in HIV and AIDS care and treatment as well as difficulties in recruiting and retaining health professionals in rural and underserved areas.
We are engaging our academic institutions on increasing the output of scarce categories of health professionals. We are spending R750 million this year on rural and scarce skills allowances to attract and retain health professionals in the public health sector and in rural areas. Clearly, the issue of recruitment of health professionals from developing countries has to be addressed urgently if we are to retain our skills base.
We are also introducing a category of mid-level health workers (including medical and pharmacist assistants) to support the delivery of services. We have also launched a community health worker programme and streamlined the training of these workers to enable them to provide a comprehensive support to families affected by AIDS and other social problems by directing them to various government social support services.
We initiated a process of evaluating our health facilities to ensure that they have the necessary capacity to provide quality services envisaged in the comprehensive plan. Facilities with sufficient capacity are accredited and can begin to provide services including anti-retroviral therapy. We give special attention to those who do not meet the requirements and improve their capacity.
We have a target of establishing a service point in each of our 53 districts with this financial year ending in March 2005 and a service point in every local municipality within five years. Many facilities have been accredited and we believe that this approach will enable all South Africans to have access to a comprehensive package of quality services irrespective of their geographical location within our vast country with a history of inequitable distribution of resources. These services include a series of interventions aimed at prolonging the progression from HIV infection to development of AIDS-defining conditions and ensuring optimal health for people living with HIV and AIDS.
We have extended laboratory networks to service the accredited facilities. These laboratories are conducting CD4 count tests, which are necessary to determine the progression of the disease and what intervention can be made available. They also do viral load and other tests to establish the effects of our interventions.
HIV and AIDS severely affect the poor and put extra demand for micronutrients on the body. We are therefore providing nutritional support for people living with HIV and AIDS and other debilitating conditions. This is part of many support services that government has made available to bring relief to people living in abject poverty.
We have invested resources on research into traditional medicines with preliminary findings indicating that indeed these medicines are providing relief for people living with AIDS. They are widely available, affordable and have simple regimens.
The process of finalising the tender for long-term supply of anti-retroviral drugs to support this plan is underway. We have short-listed from more than 40 companies that expressed interest in supplying these drugs and we expect to award the tender to successful companies by the end of next month.
This tender should enable us to meet our main objective, which is a sustainable supply of anti-retroviral drugs at the best possible prices. The tender should also facilitate a significant increase in accessibility of these drugs. There are about 6000 people who are currently receiving anti-retroviral drugs free of charge through a temporary supply measure.
As we intensify our response to HIV and AIDS, we take note of the Global HIV and AIDS Epidemic Report released recently by UNAIDS indicating an increase in HIV prevalence rate in almost every region of the world. The report requires that we do not overlook the rate of new infections as the main indicator of progress in responding to HIV and AIDS.
But as a country, we had a piece of good news a few days before this conference. The Actuarial Association of South Africa indicated that the number of people with HIV in the country is about 33% less than what the researchers thought. I must say that we have always been concerned about how the previous figures were calculated. T he researchers have come to this new conclusion because for the first time, they have taken into account the impact of our interventions including prevention and treatment.
The other area that we will be focusing on during this conference is Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV. As a country, we tried to interrogate the use of nevirapine as a monotherapy to mothers and babies.
However due to pressure from some civil society organisations, our court ruled that we needed to extend beyond the research programme that we had.
The challenges around infant feeding have also not been resolved. We invested on providing infant formula for this programme, however the recent findings are supportive of the breastfeeding option. We hope that this conference will provide sufficient data to enable us to reflect appropriately on these matters. We will soon convene a national consultative meeting to discuss the outcomes of this conference in relation to our PMTCT programme.
Programme Director, we are proud of the progress we have made as a health sector over the past ten years of democracy in South Africa. Our programme to improve the lives of previously oppressed majority in our country is making a difference. We have made basic services including water, housing and education available to millions of our people. We have many policy changes to ensure that health services are accessible to all, particularly pregnant women, children and people with disabilities.
Like other countries in Africa, we are faced with a complex burden of disease that we have to address with limited resources. We have to set priorities in the face of rising rates of several communicable diseases, chronic diseases of lifestyle and injury caused by violence and accidents.
However, we are convinced that this is the African Century. We are therefore determined to work with our partners through the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to lift our populations out of the conditions of poverty, diseases and underdevelopment.
In conclusion, let me thank all of you for joining us this afternoon. I would like to invite you to get a glimpse of the commitment and determination of the people of South Africa to respond to HIV and AIDS. The challenges are enormous, but the success of our programme lies in the powerful and continuous action to prevent new infections and to provide care and support for those who are infected and affected, assisted by many dedicated and caring South Africans.
Thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Health
11 July 2004
Source: Ministry of Health
Title: M Tshabalala-Msimang: Opening SA stand at International AIDS conference
SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT THE OPENING OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN HIV AND AIDS STAND AT THE BANGKOK CONFERENCE, Thailand, 11 July 2004
We feel very honoured as the South African delegation to be here in Bangkok to participate in the 15th International Conference on AIDS. The logo that has been created for this conference features three elephants - to symbolise the commitment of three significant tiers in response to HIV and AIDS - community, family and HIV and AIDS workers. It also represents the three programme tracks of this conference - Scientific, Community and Leadership.
Today, and for the duration of the conference, we would like to share our experiences as South Africa in response to HIV and AIDS as well as TB from these three perspectives. We also expect to learn a lot from the experiences of other countries and delegates gathered here. It is only through sharing of best practices that we can strengthen the global response to the major health problems facing the world.
Through this exhibition, we want to showcase some of the interventions we have made as a country to respond to some of these challenges. We believe that this exhibition will serve as a window to the South African HIV and AIDS as well as TB landscape. It should show the delegates a strong cadre of people who share a genuine caring ethic and a feeling of fellowship - both of which are intrinsic characteristics of our nation. We believe that the exhibition will demonstrate a truly South African response to the epidemic summed up by one slogan: "Khomanani - South Africa, Caring Together for Life".
We have made progress as a country in responding to the challenge of HIV and AIDS guided by our Strategic Plan for 2000-2005. This strategic plan has four pillars, which are:
* Prevention
* Treatment, Care and Support
* Research and surveillance
* As well as Legal and Human rights
We discussed our experiences on the successes and difficulties we have faced in implementing this strategic plan at the previous two international AIDS conferences in Durban and Barcelona.
This is the first international AIDS conference to be held since our Cabinet adopted what we call the Comprehensive Plan for Management, Care and Treatment of HIV and AIDS in November last year. While we have made significant progress in its implementation, we hope that the deliberations here will assist us in enhancing the implementation of this Comprehensive Plan.
In the absence of a cure, the Plan emphasises the centrality of prevention in our national response to HIV and AIDS. It requires us to sustain and scale up prevention efforts.
We are intensifying our programme to encourage especially young people to abstain from sex and those who are sexually active to be faithful to one partner. We are proactively marketing the free high quality male condoms provided by government and their distribution has increased by 80% over the past six years (from 150 million in 1997 to 270 million in 2003).
We have also increased the budget for HIV and AIDS communication campaign called Khomanani Caring Together from R90 million to R165 million over a two-year period. Our communication activities are focused at providing detailed information on how HIV is transmitted and can be prevented; knowing your HIV status; and the holistic management of HIV and AIDS including details about when and how anti-retroviral treatment can be taken.
Our Comprehensive Plan also emphasises the strengthening of the national health system for it to sustain a series of interventions aimed at mitigating the impact of the disease. More health professionals are being recruited to support implementation at both national and provincial level.
Like other developing countries, we are facing challenges in acquiring adequate staffing levels mainly due to inadequate numbers of certain categories of health professionals in the country, limited number of people experienced in HIV and AIDS care and treatment as well as difficulties in recruiting and retaining health professionals in rural and underserved areas.
We are engaging our academic institutions on increasing the output of scarce categories of health professionals. We are spending R750 million this year on rural and scarce skills allowances to attract and retain health professionals in the public health sector and in rural areas. Clearly, the issue of recruitment of health professionals from developing countries has to be addressed urgently if we are to retain our skills base.
We are also introducing a category of mid-level health workers (including medical and pharmacist assistants) to support the delivery of services. We have also launched a community health worker programme and streamlined the training of these workers to enable them to provide a comprehensive support to families affected by AIDS and other social problems by directing them to various government social support services.
We initiated a process of evaluating our health facilities to ensure that they have the necessary capacity to provide quality services envisaged in the comprehensive plan. Facilities with sufficient capacity are accredited and can begin to provide services including anti-retroviral therapy. We give special attention to those who do not meet the requirements and improve their capacity.
We have a target of establishing a service point in each of our 53 districts with this financial year ending in March 2005 and a service point in every local municipality within five years. Many facilities have been accredited and we believe that this approach will enable all South Africans to have access to a comprehensive package of quality services irrespective of their geographical location within our vast country with a history of inequitable distribution of resources. These services include a series of interventions aimed at prolonging the progression from HIV infection to development of AIDS-defining conditions and ensuring optimal health for people living with HIV and AIDS.
We have extended laboratory networks to service the accredited facilities. These laboratories are conducting CD4 count tests, which are necessary to determine the progression of the disease and what intervention can be made available. They also do viral load and other tests to establish the effects of our interventions.
HIV and AIDS severely affect the poor and put extra demand for micronutrients on the body. We are therefore providing nutritional support for people living with HIV and AIDS and other debilitating conditions. This is part of many support services that government has made available to bring relief to people living in abject poverty.
We have invested resources on research into traditional medicines with preliminary findings indicating that indeed these medicines are providing relief for people living with AIDS. They are widely available, affordable and have simple regimens.
The process of finalising the tender for long-term supply of anti-retroviral drugs to support this plan is underway. We have short-listed from more than 40 companies that expressed interest in supplying these drugs and we expect to award the tender to successful companies by the end of next month.
This tender should enable us to meet our main objective, which is a sustainable supply of anti-retroviral drugs at the best possible prices. The tender should also facilitate a significant increase in accessibility of these drugs. There are about 6000 people who are currently receiving anti-retroviral drugs free of charge through a temporary supply measure.
As we intensify our response to HIV and AIDS, we take note of the Global HIV and AIDS Epidemic Report released recently by UNAIDS indicating an increase in HIV prevalence rate in almost every region of the world. The report requires that we do not overlook the rate of new infections as the main indicator of progress in responding to HIV and AIDS.
But as a country, we had a piece of good news a few days before this conference. The Actuarial Association of South Africa indicated that the number of people with HIV in the country is about 33% less than what the researchers thought. I must say that we have always been concerned about how the previous figures were calculated. T he researchers have come to this new conclusion because for the first time, they have taken into account the impact of our interventions including prevention and treatment.
The other area that we will be focusing on during this conference is Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV. As a country, we tried to interrogate the use of nevirapine as a monotherapy to mothers and babies.
However due to pressure from some civil society organisations, our court ruled that we needed to extend beyond the research programme that we had.
The challenges around infant feeding have also not been resolved. We invested on providing infant formula for this programme, however the recent findings are supportive of the breastfeeding option. We hope that this conference will provide sufficient data to enable us to reflect appropriately on these matters. We will soon convene a national consultative meeting to discuss the outcomes of this conference in relation to our PMTCT programme.
Programme Director, we are proud of the progress we have made as a health sector over the past ten years of democracy in South Africa. Our programme to improve the lives of previously oppressed majority in our country is making a difference. We have made basic services including water, housing and education available to millions of our people. We have many policy changes to ensure that health services are accessible to all, particularly pregnant women, children and people with disabilities.
Like other countries in Africa, we are faced with a complex burden of disease that we have to address with limited resources. We have to set priorities in the face of rising rates of several communicable diseases, chronic diseases of lifestyle and injury caused by violence and accidents.
However, we are convinced that this is the African Century. We are therefore determined to work with our partners through the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to lift our populations out of the conditions of poverty, diseases and underdevelopment.
In conclusion, let me thank all of you for joining us this afternoon. I would like to invite you to get a glimpse of the commitment and determination of the people of South Africa to respond to HIV and AIDS. The challenges are enormous, but the success of our programme lies in the powerful and continuous action to prevent new infections and to provide care and support for those who are infected and affected, assisted by many dedicated and caring South Africans.
Thank you.
Issued by: Ministry of Health
11 July 2004
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
