Pretoria - Despite the government having spent R23 billion a year on HIV/Aids, more still needs to be done as South Africa still had the largest Aids epidemic in the world.
Ahead of the 21st International Aids Conference to be held in Durban, representatives of the national Health Department and SA National Aids Council (Sanac) briefed the media on the gains that have been made in trying to curb the disease.
Dr Yogan Pillay, deputy director-general for Aids, TB and Maternal,Newborn and Child Health in the Health Department, said as of last month pre-exposure prophylaxis were given to sex workers as high-risk individuals in society.
From September, the government will implement the test and start campaigns where people who test HIV positive will immediately start treatment and not wait for their CD4 count to reach 500.
“This needs buy-in of communities because more resources are needed to keep people on treatment,” Pillay said.
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Dr Fareed Abdullah, chief executive of Sanac, revealed that an estimated R23bn a year was being spent by the government on HIV, 80% of which came from the government and the rest from donors.
“We [government] have spent more on HIV in South Africa than The Global Fund spends in the whole of Africa,†Abdullah said.
He said Sanac and the Department of Health have commissioned more HIV research over the next 20 years that would require more expenditure.
“All signs point to us needing to do more in targeting new infections,” Abdullah said.
“New infections are coming down, but in some age group categories they are extremely high.”
Abdullah said for females in the 15-24 age group, the new infection rate was at 2.38 percent.
This meant that for every 100 females in this age group three of them would contract HIV each year, which was considered extremely high, he added.
The next few months will be spent drafting the next strategic plan for South Africa, which is done every five years.
The results will be revealed on December 1, World Aids Day.
Abdullah said they would focus more on neglected populations, such as drug users, inmates, sex workers and men having sex with men.
South Africa still had the largest Aids epidemic in the world despite all that had been done to decrease new infections, he said.
In 2004, the new infection rate was 500 000 people and it decreased to 330 000 in 2014.
“The number of deaths in South Africa dropped significantly in the past five years from 320 000 to 140 000. This is still a very high number,” Abdullah said.
Pillay said that pregnant HIV-positive women would be placed on a lifetime supply of ART, instead of just during the breastfeeding stage like before.
The aim is for 90 percent of people to know their HIV status, 90 percent of those who are eligible for treatment to have access and 90 percent of those on treatment to be virally suppressed.
More cash injections will be needed for this to be achieved.
The latest statistics revealed during the media briefing show that mother to child transmission had declined from 70 000 to 6 000 new infant infections - a number they would like to see reduced to zero.
About 3.6 million of the estimated 6.8 million people living with HIV and Aids are on treatment while 3 million medical male circumcisions have been performed since 2010, and the government wants that number to reach 4.3 million by the end of the year.
The African Centre said the cycle of HIV transmission involved HIV positive women aged between 24 and 29 who were having sex with men aged 23 to 35 who were then having sex with young women aged 16-23.
Pillay said the government needed to do more to target and intercept those links.
He said, to reach its targets, there needed to be more male medical circumcision and more people on treatment from an early stage.
Also needed was increased and consistent use of condoms and a change in social behaviour.
The Aids 2016 conference begins on July 18 and runs until July 22.
PRETORIA NEWS