Ga — Over 4 000 Community Health Workers (CHWs) in the North West have been commended for increasing education and awareness about HIV and AIDS among various home based groups.

North West MEC Nomonde Rasmeni applauded the CHWs for their outstanding work during World AIDS Day at the Ga- Khunwana Village on Monday.

"Our community health workers are key ambassadors of the department and are well trained and equipped with knowledge and skills.

"They are in a position to educate communities about the services of the department particularly HIV and AIDS as well as VCT therefore they must be applauded," she said.

The MEC encouraged them to remain inspired and to continue to give meaning to the lives of those infected and affected by the virus.

World AIDS Day, which is commemorated annually on 1December, is aimed at raising awareness about HIV and AIDS and to highlight the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

According to the MEC the province was making significant strides in education and awareness on HIV and AIDS.

"Despite the many challenges that face our department, evidence points to the fact that this province has done well particularly in the areas of education and awareness of the HIV and AIDS pandemic.

"As a result we have witnessed a significant drop in the number of new infections," MEC Rasmeni said.

Earlier this year at the South African AIDS Conference in the Durban, the province was declared the second best province in the implementation of the much challenging comprehensive plan on HIV and AIDS.

The Anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment in the province has done extremely well since its inception. The department was able to respond to the target set by national government of having at least one service point in each district.

MEC Rasmeni said as her department builds on their impressive record, they are set to increase the number of patients on ARVs in an effort to reduce HIV and AIDS infections and deaths in the province.

The department currently has 53 944 patients on ARV treatment and intends to add another 10 000 patients on the programme in the next financial year.

She further said the department was also planning to reduce infection by 29 percent by 2011.

In an effort to meet these targets, MEC Rasmeni said, the department has 466 public voluntary counselling and testing centres, 314 Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) facilities and 18 High Transmission Intervention (HTI) sites in the province.

The department has also accredited 22 sites to offer ARV treatment and 28 community based organisations have been accredited as part of the down referral programme, which includes hospitals and community health centres.

Chairperson of the North West people living with HIV and AIDS sector, Neo Moepi from Mafikeng told BuaNews that the province was doing well in education and awareness campaigns because of its partnerships.

Mr Moepi who has being living with HIV and AIDS for the past 15 years said the partnerships between government and the private sector have increased the fight against HIV and AIDS.

"I am very much impressed to see a lot of private companies working together with government in making sure that communities understand the seriousness of HIV and AIDS."

Previously, he said, many people ignored HIV and AIDS as it did not affect them directly however that was changing because of the work done by the different organisations and government.