Cape Town - The government's programme that prevents the transmission of HIV from mother to child, helped save the lives of more than a hundred thousand babies.
This by reducing the transmission rate of the HIV virus from mother to child from 8% in 2008 to 2.7% last year, the Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi said yesterday.
Motsoaledi was quoting figures from the Medical Research Council (MRC) in reply to a parliamentary question raised in the National Assembly by the ANC on what progress South Africa had made in the battle against HIV and Aids and TB.
He revealed that the transmission rate is now lowest in the Western Cape (1.98%) and highest in the Northern Cape at 6.1% (which however is based on a small sample size).
With over 1.7 million South Africans now on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, he said the country was beginning to see an increase in life expectancy - with for example researchers in rural KwaZulu-Natal, having found a six-year increase in life expectancy with those on ARVs.
He said the rate at which TB was being cured was slowly going up and now stood at 73%.
"If we add those that have completed their treatment but where we don't yet have their last sputum test then the national figure standards at 79% for 2011. Whilst this is still short of the national target of 85% we are getting closer each year to this target," he said.
In response to a question from an opposition member raised in the National Assembly on what plans his department had to increase the number of doctors and nurses needed to implement the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, Motsoaledi detailed a number of steps his department was taking in this regard.
Firstly, the average number of matriculants sent by the department to study medicine in Cuba, had been increased from 60 a year to 80 last year, and would this year be increased to 1 000, he said.
Secondly, the department had also been encouraging the country's eight medical schools to increase their intake of medical students - with Wits University having last year accepted 40 extra students for which the department covered with an additional R8 million.
The other universities followed this year and increased their intake by an overall total of 160 students, for which the department gave R48m, he said.
Thirdly, the department also plans to set up a new medical school in Limpopo and build a tertiary hospital in Mpumalanga in anticipation of the new university planned to be set up there by 2014.
The department would also rebuild the other medical schools with their central hospitals, including: George Mukhari Central Hospital in Medunsa, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital under Wits University, King Edward VIII Hospital under the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the Walter Sisulu School of Medicine in Mthatha.
Lastly, a total of R1.2bn would be spent by the department over the next three years to refurbish and re-equip 122 nursing colleges.
