Maranyane Ngwanaamotho
14 October 2009
The Minister of Health, Lesego Motsumi has announced that the spread of HIV/AIDS has stabilised in Botswana.
Speaking at the I-TECH Kabelano breakfast seminar on Tuesday, the minister said that in 2008, the prevalence rate was 17.6 percent compared to 17.1 percent in 2004. She said this raises hope that the pandemic is stabilising.
"This is further confirmed by the reduction in the younger age groups 15-24 years from 13% in 2004 to 8% in 2008 and stabilisation of the adult prevalence from 25.3% in 2004 to 25.0% in 2008," she said.She said the uptake of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV (PMTCT) has increased from 49% in 2002 to 89% in 2008.
"Subsequently, 90% of these women are receiving therapy to reduce mother to child transmission of HIV, resulting in about 97% of babies born HIV negative," she said.
The minister stated that to date, about 131,444 or 90% of people living with HIV/AIDS are on Anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy. She said there are 131 clinics countrywide providing ARVs as a way of increasing access to treatment. Home based care patients have reduced from 12,000 in 2002 to 3,600 in September 2008.Motsumi said that the orphan population has remained stable at approximately 52,000 for the past three years.
She said Botswana could not have achieved much in the fight against HIV/AIDS without collaboration from I-TECH, Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Global AIDS Programme in Botswana and BOTUSA. The Ministry of Health has worked with I-TECH since 2003.
The I-TECH country director, Bazghina Semo said that her team works together with the ministry to support the development of comprehensive training systems for health care workers in regions hardest hit by HIV/AIDS.
She said that I-TECH's vision in Botswana is to enhance the skills of health care workers through in-service and pre-service training. She said they offer mentoring activities, pre-service education and distance learning.
Semo said that I-TECH receives funding from international donors like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
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