Pretoria - Although over three million people have tested for HIV, the Gauteng Health Department is calling on others to heed the call and voluntarily have themselves tested.
Holding an awareness campaign at Johannesburg's Park Station to mark World Aids Day on Thursday, 300 health workers and volunteers educated people about the disease.
"Regular checks will help you determine what steps to take if they discover that you are HIV positive. If you have tested negative, strive to remain negative," MEC Notombi Mekgwe told people gathered at the event.
Since the launch of a mass HIV testing campaign in April 2010, in Gauteng, 3.1 million people have tested for HIV. Statistics also show that one in eight adults is living with HIV, while nearly one in three pregnant women is HIV positive.
The Gauteng province has been able to reduce the transmission of HIV from mother to child to 2.3% in 2010/11 from 5.6% in 2009/10.
More males were responding to the province's call for circumcision, an initiative the department has scaled up to prevent new infections.
"When we launched this programme last year, only 16 783 males were circumcised. Between April and June this year, we already circumcised 35 088 males at our facilities," said Mekgwe.
The provincial department is providing anti-retroviral treatment to 501 426 people, including 21 794 children. Patients receive their treatment from 331 facilities.
The MEC later joined a march from Park Station to Newtown where people listened to President Jacob Zuma's keynote address from the national World Aids Day event in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape.
