Aids

1 December is World Aids Day. Image via Flickr: Sham Hardy.

World AIDS Day: Cheka impilo, know your status

World AIDS Day is on Saturday, 1 December.

Aids

1 December is World Aids Day. Image via Flickr: Sham Hardy.

Deputy President David Mabuza has chaired a successful South African National Aids Council (SANAC) Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) meeting ahead of World Aids Day this weekend.

The SANAC IMC received a state of readiness report on the 2018 World Aids Day event, which is scheduled to take place at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto.

This year’s World AIDS Day theme

This year’s World Aids Day will take place under the national theme “Cheka Impilo. Know Your Status”. The theme calls on HIV testing programmes to be expanded and for novel and innovative approaches to HIV testing.

The Deputy President is expected to be among the keynote speakers.

During the meeting at Tuynhuys on Thursday, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi provided an update on key issues with respect to current developments for treatment and care for HIV and TB. 

Read – Scientists admit latest setbacks in quest for AIDS cure

This included the successful launch of the National Wellness Campaign which is aimed at creating a multi-sectoral, inclusive and efficient database system for collecting HIV, TB, STIs and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) data to ensure a proper monitoring of the performance of the healthcare system.      

Declaration on the fight against HIV and TB

The meeting noted that the United Nations (UN) convened the first-ever High Level Meeting (HLM) on Ending Tuberculosis (TB) in New York on 26 September 2018. The meeting was attended by Heads of State and Government, and it resulted in the Political Declaration on the Fight against Tuberculosis.  

The declaration has, among other things, recommitted world leaders towards:

  • Finding and successfully treating 40 million patients including 3.5 million children, 1.5 million with Drug Resistant TB and 115 000 children with Drug Resistant TB by 2022.
  • Preventing TB in 30 million people including 4 million children under the age of 5, 20 million others, 6 million with HIV by 2022.
  • Implementing United Nations/World Health Organisation resolutions on anti-microbial resistance (AMR).
  • Improving co-ordination between HIV and TB programmes.
  • Addressing the social, economic and structural drivers of TB, HIV, viral hepatitis, non-communicable diseases, especially diabetes.