South Africa: Nearly 1,4 Million South Africans test for AIDS

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More South Africans are voluntarily getting counselled and tested for HIV with figures rising annually, the Department of Health said on Tuesday.Spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said 1 715 588 people utilised the free voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) services between April 2005 and March 2006."The trend is that it seems to be doubling every year," he said.In 2005/06, 1,7-million people received pre-HIV test counselling and 80%, or 1 374 638, volunteered for HIV tests.In 2004/05 one million participants were counselled and 866 000 tested.Thirty-five percent, or 479 086, people tested HIV positive in the last financial year, but this does not reflect prevalence within the general population, Mngadi said.This is because the participants are a small percentage of the total population."That 35% should not be interpreted as suggesting the prevalence for the general population," he said.Department ante-natal surveys, showing positive rates amongst pregnant clinic users of about 30%, are also adjusted to project figures of about 10% for the total population, he explained."What is critical for us is to make sure everybody participates and goes for a test. People shouldn't only go for a test if they are ill, it should become part of taking action to know our HIV status. That will give us the rate of the general population." About four million people have used the services since 2000 and the uptake is attributed to awareness campaigns that encourage people to know their status.Provincial figures show the greatest participation in the North West and lowest in the Northern Cape.The highest HIV-positive rate is in KwaZulu-Natal, with 47% of 310 215 people tested being infected and lowest in the Western Cape with 18% of 146 669 testing positive.Mngadi said 4 172 VCT points are operational in medical and non-medical sites in all nine provinces and 90% of government clinics.The national annual budget is nearly R26-million.In 2003/04, 690 000 people were counselled and 511 000 tested.Good progressResearch towards an Aids vaccine is progressing well, the executive director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said on Tuesday."There's a lot of intensive research and we are hoping for some breakthrough in the near future," said Professor Barry Schoub at the official opening of the NICD in Johannesburg.The institute's HIV/Aids unit is its largest research department. It is currently investigating resistance to antiretroviral drugs, including nevirapine, commonly used to prevent mother-to-child transmission. It is also developing assays (a procedure for measuring the biochemical and immunological activity of a sample) to detect possible novel mutations in HIV-1 subtype C viruses. These are predominantly responsible for the epidemic in South Africa and are relatively understudied compared to subtype B, circulating in Europe and the United States. The institute now also boasts a recently refurbished maximum security, biosafety level-four laboratory where research on viral haemorrhagic fever and the Ebola and Marburg viruses is conducted.Speaking at the launch, the deputy director general in the Health Department, Dr Kamy Chetty, said the department will continue to support the NICD financially.She said the institute's epidemiology division plays an important role in detecting and responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. It has a 24 hour hotline that gives advice to clinicians and public health officials who needed advice on communicable diseases. The NICD is a branch of the National Health Laboratory Service. It was formed in 2002 by the amalgamation of the National Institute for Virology and the microbiology laboratories of the South African Institute for Medical Research. -- Sapa