Cape Town - Less than 20 years ago there were only 90 people in South Africa that were on treatment for HIV.
Now South Africa has the biggest life-saving treatment programme in the world, with more than four million people on treatment.
Executive director for UNAids Michel Sidibé shared the statistics yesterday at the launch of the UNAids report, showing how access to treatment has risen significantly.
Sidibé said there was progress being made on HIV treatment.
“The right to health belongs to everyone. The report shows that when the right to health is compromised then HIV is more likely to spread.”
He said that by June, around 20.9 million people globally had access to antiretroviral therapy.
“South Africa has the biggest life-saving treatment programme in the world, with more than 4 million people on treatment. This is the kind of acceleration we need to encourage, sustain and replicate.”
He said the rise in more people having access to treatment was keeping more people living with HIV alive and well.
“Scientific research has also shown that a person living with HIV who is adhering to an effective regime of antiretroviral therapy is up to 97% less likely to transmit HIV. As treatment access has been scaled up for pregnant women living with HIV, new HIV infections among children have rapidly been reduced.”
Sidibé said that from 2010 to last year new HIV infections among children were reduced by 56% in southern and eastern Africa, which are the regions most affected by HIV.
Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said that the first person in Khayelitsha started treatment in 2001 and that more than 420000 people were now on treatment.
“The success of Khayelitsha’s treatment programme is a microcosm of the massive success of South Africa’s HIV programme.”
He said the challenge now was to get treatment to the 17.1 million people, including 919 000 children, still in need of treatment. “Government cannot do it alone; this fight belongs to all of us, just like the fight against apartheid belonged to all of us.”