More than half a million people previously diagnosed with HIV have started on HIV treatment since the end of February, the health minister says. But can a big jump in 10 weeks really be? We look at the numbers

More than half a million people previously diagnosed with HIV have started on HIV treatment since the end of February, the health minister says. But can a big jump in 10 weeks really be? We look at the numbers

At a glance

• Last month, the health minister said that more than half a million previously diagnosed people with HIV have been started on treatment since the end of February.
• But can it really be, especially since the gap to getting 95% of people diagnosed with HIV on medication has been hovering around 1 million for the past five years?
• Critics say they're sceptical about the minister's figures, and that the country will close the gap by December.
• We dive into the numbers to see what the picture looks like.

Numbers are powerful.

They can also be dangerous -- if not used correctly.

When the health minister said last month that 520,700 more people previously diagnosed with HIV have started on treatment since the end of February, the number sounded astounding.

The health department's goal before the end of the year is to find 1.1 million people who know they have HIV but have either never started treatment or fell out...