JOHANNESBURG, South Africa | 03 April 2014 - “Impressive strides have been made in the implementation of HIV, TB and PMTCT programme since the last reviews were conducted in 2009” is the highlight of the message delivered on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo by the Director of Disease Prevention and Control, WHO Regional Office for Africa, Dr Francis Kasolo. This statement was made at the handover ceremony of a report of the first ever Joint HIV, TB and PMTCT Review. 

The report was received by the Minister of Health in South Africa, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi,, accompanied by the Director General of Health, Ms Malebona Matsoso, and Deputy Director General of HIV, TB and Women and Child Health Department, Dr Yogan Pillay.

Presenting a summary of the results, Dr Kasolo, emphasized South Africa’s leadership in HIV, TB and PMTCT prevention and control since the last review in 2009. Key findings of the review include among others:

Integration of services has been made an overarching policy, in the context of Health System transformation and Primary Health Care Re-engineering,
Successful and functional integration of HIV, TB and PMCT services, particularly at primary care level,
HIV testing rapidly scaled up,
Four fold increase of ART services with more than two million PLHIV on treatment,
Over 80% PMTCT coverage,
Over one million boys and men medically circumcised,
Rapid scale up of TB screening,
Rapid rollout of GeneXpert nationally to complement microscopy,
MDR-TB treatment sites increased from 11 to 45,
MDR-TB care decentralized to improve access to services, and
Improvement in drug supply and laboratory services.
Dr Gottfried Hirnschall, Director, HIV/AIDS Department, WHO Headquarters, spoke about “What Next: Taking HIV and TB prevention and control in South Africa to the next level”, which provided a global perspective on lessons learnt and the way forward on the implementation of the findings and recommendations of the review.. From the review, Dr Hirnschall observed that:

Impressive scale up is possible in short time, with commitment, a clear road map, resources, and system capacity.
Key populations also matter in generalized epidemics, which require targeting within a general population approach (“no one left behind”).
Also present at the handover ceremony was WHO Representative in South Africa, Dr Sarah Barber, and representatives of development partners including, the US Ambassador in South Africa, Heads of UNICEF, UNAIDS and URC.  

NOTE FOR THE EDITOR

The National Department of Health commissioned a Joint Review of the HIV, TB and PMTCT Programmes in 2013. The main purpose of this independent Review was to assess performance of the programmes and provide options for improvement. The focus of the Joint Review was on issues critical to effective delivery and impact of HIV, TB and PMTCT services - to assess progress made, identify challenges, and highlight best practices.

The Review was carried out using a combination of methods; a desk review of epidemiological data, policies and strategies, and financing data of HIV, TB and PMTCT services was conducted. Site visits were carried out at national, provincial, district and sub-district levels including medicine depots and laboratories.  The Review covered 9 provinces, 21 districts and 100 facilities

WHO provided technical leadership in the design and implementation of the Review, University Research Council (URC) coordinated the logistics. The implementation of this review was carried out by 161 multi-disciplinary teams of international and South African reviewers drawn from 29 institutions. A number of partner institutions made invaluable contributions to the Review in the form of finances, expertise, logistics and information. They include the following: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

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