Dubbed the HCT or HIV Counseling and Testing campaign, the initiative will roll out just after the Easter holidays. Its launch was scheduled to be announced at a press conference this week, but was delayed to allow the Health Minister to be satisfied that all of South Africa’€™s health facilities will be ready to provide HIV testing services when the campaign kicks off. This will arguably be the most ambitious HIV testing campaign any country has ever had. The HCT’€™s target is to have up to 15 million South Africans tested for HIV by June next year. The campaign will run until the end of the current National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS in 2011.

It is underpinned by four objectives: to increase health-seeking behaviour; to encourage South Africans to know their status; to equip those who test HIV-negative with ways of ensuring that they don’€™t get HIV; and to create a quick and easy entry point to accessing wellness and treatment services for those who test HIV-positive.

Health MinisterDr Aaron Motsoaledi said the Health Department is working from the view that prevention is dependent on finding one’€™s HIV status and being able to get antiretroviral treatment if one tests HIV-positive.

‘€œOur view as South Africa is that the mainstay of the fight against any disease is to prevent it from happening. You don’€™t have to be a scientist to know that. We grew up knowing that ‘€˜prevention is better than cure’€™ at all times. But if you have failed to prevent it and it has happened, you have to treat it. We do accept that the fact that we have got so many people on treatment, might be (because of) failure of prevention’€, he said.

The campaign officially came into light on World AIDS Day 2009 when President Jacob Zuma announced new protocols for the prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission and the treatment of TB/HIV co-infection, effective as of April 01.   As the implementation date draws closer, Motsoaledi warned South Africans not to construe treatment as the only response against AIDS.

‘€œWe are worried’€, he said. ‘€œWe are worried that South Africans, ever since World AIDS Day, seem to be thinking that we have arrived’€¦ A new set of recommendations have been made about treatment and I don’€™t have a feel that South Africans understand that the biggest weapon must be prevention. The treatment we have announced is because of the load we are having, but we want to stop that from happening, and so, we need to send that message out’€¦ that regardless of the amount of money we’€™ve got, we’€™ve got to prevent the disease’€.

Thus, more emphasis will be on prevention through information, education, intensified distribution of condoms and mobilization of millions to know their status.

Motsoaledi warned that although government has increased its allocation for AIDS treatment, this is not a sustainable solution in the long-term.

‘€œIn the last budget the HIV/AIDS budget increased by 33% over the previous year. If you look at the budgetary items which the government has done, whether it’€™s education, housing, water, electricity, etc, 33% is the highest increment of any of the other budgetary items. The next nearest to that is Human Settlements, at 25%. Now my problem is that we can’€™t keep on increasing by 33%, we have got to cut the rate of infection. If we keep on increasing that by 33% we will reach a situation in South Africa where the whole budget must go to treatment of HIV/AIDS, and I don’€™t think any country can afford that. So, our war of prevention is extra-ordinarily important’€, he said.

The HCT method will differ from HIV testing as we know it. The method currently being used is that of VCT, which means that if a health worker has any reason, they will counsel a patient about HIV testing and then the patient will voluntarily decide to have their blood taken for an HIV test.   With HCT, a health worker will offer patients HIV testing routinely when they come to a health facility, irrespective of whether a patient has HIV symptoms or not. The campaign will launch first in Gauteng with public testing facilities on offer before rolling out to other provinces.