BuaNews (Tshwane)
Gabi Khumalo
6 May 2008
Pretoria — The Department of Health has dismissed a report by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) alleging that the prevalence of HIV in South Africa stood at 7.6 million.
Department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said the figures attributed to DBSA and published in a weekend newspaper seemed to be far off from the estimates of many other surveys conducted by government and independent research institutions.
"The Department of Health uses the survey of HIV prevalence among women attending antenatal clinics and follows the model suggested by United Nations AIDS agency to estimate the level of HIV prevalence in the country," Mr Mngadi explained.
He said the Antenatal Survey Report for 2006 has put HIV prevalence in the general population at 5.4 million.
This estimate is supported by the findings of other research institutions such as the Human Science Research Council, the Actuarial Society of South Africa and Global AIDS report released by UNAIDS during the last World AIDS Day, he said.
The department said it would study the DBSA report before responding to it in detail.
It also encouraged other researchers involved in HIV prevalence studies to engage with the report and ensure that there was a peer review of its findings.
"The department has conducted these studies for more than 15 years and the outcomes released annually have reflected both the increases experienced in the early 1990s and the stabilisation that has been experienced over the past three to four years.
"The findings of independent studies conducted by several organisations with credibility in HIV prevalence studies have confirmed the trends reflected in the Health Department's survey over the past years," said Mr Mngadi.
He further noted that the department continued to intensify the prevention campaign through the Abstinence, Be faithful, Condomise strategy and also believed prevention was the main intervention that would assist in reversing the course of HIV and AIDS in society.
Speaking on HIV and AIDS during a Social Cluster briefing on Monday, Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang said the department's treatment, care and support intervention was gradually gaining momentum in line with its commitment to deal with this challenge.
"As at February 2008, our figures show that at least 456 000 had been initiated on antiretroviral treatment and 39 759 of these are children in all 407 facilities accredited to provide this service.
"We now have 86 percent of the sub-districts having at least one service point accredited to provide comprehensive care to people living with HIV and AIDS," the minister said.
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