Mpumalanga Celebrates World Aids Day

27 November 2008

As part of worldwide Aids Day celebrations the department of Health in Mpumalanga will observe this important day on Monday 01 December at Mayflower stadium in the Albert Luthuli Municipality starting at 09h00 under the theme; “Stop HIV and Aids: Leadership and Unity”.

The celebrations are yet another opportunity for society as a whole to reflect on the effects of HIV and Aids to our well-being as a nation and what efforts are being made to fight the pandemic. It comes a year after for the first all role players in the fight against the pandemic reached broad consensus on what needs to be done and what resources are required to implement priorities identified as contained in the comprehensive HIV and Aids strategy 2007-2011.

Mpumalanga is one of the provinces with the highest prevalence of HIV and Aids at 32% and this calls on us more than other provinces, to double our efforts in the fight against the pandemic. This therefore requires a concerted effort by all our social partners and the re-launch of the Provincial Aids Council last year has without doubt provided a platform for a common onslaught against the pandemic.

One of the challenges identified is the low number of people especially males who utilize our Voluntary Counseling and testing facilities. “It is quite important for our people to know their status because this provides an opportunity for individuals to make informed life and sexual choices henceforth, thus protecting themselves from further re-infection if they are infected, and remaining negative if they are. It is in this context that we embarked on a week long “know your status” targeting men in particular at the beginning of November” said MEC Fish Mahlalela.

We had targeted to reach 2600 men for Voluntary counseling and testing in the province through 29 participating clinics and preliminary reports indicate that we actually doubled the number as we are now standing at 5200. It is very important for every one of us to know our status, but it is more so for men because there is a tendency for men to test themselves through impregnating their partners but also that men are the most perpetrators of sexual violence given power relations at play in our society.

We also have a campaign that target young girls called “Mayihlome Izazi’ further strengthening our call for all and sundry to know their status and live a positive lifestyles. Through this campaign we aim to infuse a culture of responsibility amongst young girls because prevalence figures indicates that young people between the ages of 15-25 are the most affected. We also empower them to make informed sexual choices because in most cases women are in the receiving end of sexual violence.

We have also made progress with regard to ARV’s roll out to people living with HIV. We have increased our roll out sites to 29 and plan to have 34 sites at the end of this financial year. We had planned to enroll 35 692 people by the end of this financial year but have already exceeded this number with 36 243 people now on ARV treatment. We estimate that there could be 80 000 people in need of ARV treatment in the province.

The other important aspect of the fight against HIV and Aids and all other chronic disease is for our people to internalize the Healthy lifestyle campaign, because it is a cornerstone for prevention of many diseases of lifestyle. It is important for all of us to eat good food, embark on physical activities and safer sexual choices.

“The dream for a generation in Africa free from HIV and Aids can be realized. Let us all take full responsibility for our lifes. Let us provide care, support and love to people infected and affected by HIV and Aids, and above all, people not infected should remain so”, said MEC Fish Mahlalela.