Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has appealed to people on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to continue taking their medication amid reports that grant funding by the United States of America (USA) is under review.
The review of the grant funding is expected to affect the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) programme, which is aimed at supporting HIV prevention, care and treatment. The programme supports several countries, including South Africa, to achieve HIV epidemic control.
Addressing members of the media on the sidelines of a two-day Cabinet Lekgotla, Motsoaledi said the country’s ARVs proramme will not be affected, as it is funded by the South African government and the Global Fund.
“For now, all HIV/AIDS programmes continue. As the South African government, we want to ascertain that nobody must stop taking ARVs because that will be devastating,” Motsoaledi said on Wednesday.
South Africa has 52 districts and of those, 27 districts are funded by PEPFAR.
“PEPFAR chose 27 of the most affected districts and these districts are in eight provinces, as they choose districts based on the burden of HIV/AIDS. The only province that is not included is the Northern Cape because it does not have any districts that are highly affected by HIV/AIDS,” the Minister said.
Of the 27 districts, seven of them are in KwaZulu-Natal; five are in the Eastern Cape, four are in Gauteng; three are in Mpumalanga and the North West, respectively; two are in Limpopo and one is in the Western Cape.
“The total number of people on the ground who are dealing with HIV/AIDS in those 27 districts is 271 606. Of the 271 606 people, 256 452 are funded by South Africa from the fiscus. That leaves us with 15 145 people, who will be affected by the withdrawal.
“Our biggest problems will be the salaries and the operational costs. That is what we are looking at with National Treasury,” Motsoaledi said.
Seventy-six percent of the funding for HIV/AIDS programmes is from South Africa. This constitutes 74% of funding from the government and 2% from the private sector.
“That leaves us with a gap that is filled by the Global Fund, which gives 7% and PEPFAR, which accounts for 17%. When you add the funds from the Global Fund and South Africa’s funding, that makes 83% and PEPFAR remains with the 17%. We are buying ARVs, together with the Global Fund,” the Minister said.
With reports indicating changes in the grant funding by the US, Motsoaledi said the government of South Africa has not received any communication on these changes.
“So far, we have not received a letter from the American government. These funds for the HIV/AIDS programmes come through National Treasury and they have not received a letter; the Department of Health and Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) have also not received a letter.
“We have tried to contact the US embassy and we couldn’t get them. The NGOs and the clinics that are funded by PEPFAR are the ones who have received letters,” the Minister said.
Out of the 63 million people in South Africa, 7.8 million people are HIV positive, with 5.5 million on ARVs.
In 2014, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) adopted the strategy of 95-95-95, which sets a target that 95% of people living with HIV (PLHIV) must know their HIV status; 95% of people diagnosed with HIV must receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 95% of people receiving ART must achieve viral load suppression (VLS).
“We are on 96%. That means 96% of people who have HIV in South Africa know their status but of those, 79% are on treatment and in that 79% who are on ARVs, 94% of them are virally suppressed. It means that they can no longer spread the virus, reducing the number of new infections.
“For us to reach the 95-95-95 targets by 2030 - because we want to eliminate HIV as a threat to human health - we need 1.1million people to be on treatment so we reach the target,” the Minister said. - SAnews.gov.za
