Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
South African Press Association - October 16, 2006
"About 178 635 people had been initiated on antiretroviral therapy in the 262 accredited facilities in the country by June this year," said spokesperson Charity Bengu.
She said 31 255 patients were on the waiting list to receive the treatment during the same period.
"This number of patients on the waiting list is significantly lower than the figure of between 500 000 and 800 000 that was released by the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC).
"It arrived at the figure by assuming that between 10% to 15% of people currently estimated to be living with HIV/Aids have progressed to a stage of 200 CD4 or below and therefore may need ARVs," said Bengu.
She said the TAC's model did not necessarily take into consideration the impact of healthy lifestyle interventions in delaying progression from HIV infection to development of Aids-defining conditions.
"Antiretroviral drugs can prolong life at the latter stage, but healthy lifestyle interventions are also important."
Patients on the waiting list are those who had undergone voluntary counselling and testing and had been assessed for CD4 count, viral load and clinically at stage three or four of the disease, she said.
Limited capacity, particularly with regard to staffing and space in accredited facilities, required that some of the patients remained on the waiting list for a certain period before they underwent clinical evaluation and treatment was initiated.
The limited human-resource capacity at a pharmacy level remained one of the major challenges the department was trying to address.
"Pharmacists need to have a one-on-one session with every patient to reinforce the messages on the importance of compliance and adherence to the specific times at which the medication has to be taken," said Bengu.
Adherence was critical because if patients missed their specified time for taking medicine for more than an hour, they had risk of developing resistance.
Bengu said the department was determined to ensure that "everyone progressively realises the right of access to prevention, care and treatment services".
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