- Activists from the Global HIV Treatment Coalition presented to the Portfolio Committee on Health on Thursday, outlining the impending health crisis due to funding cuts.
- Francois Venter, clinician researcher at Wits University, explained how Gauteng was the worst hit by the PEPFAR cuts.
- He said that without this funding, there has been a collapse of HIV testing programmes and pre-exposure prophylaxis PrEP programmes.
- HIV activist Zackie Achmat demanded that the health department and National Treasury make public their plans to address the funding shortfall they mentioned in statements earlier this year.
Clinics providing critical HIV treatment and other health services across the country have been forced to close or severely scale down operations, activists told Members of Parliament on Thursday.
Presenting to the Portfolio Committee on Health on Thursday, members of the Global HIV Treatment Coalition outlined the impending health crisis. This follows a disruption by activists of the committee's meeting last week. They demanded a response to a letter the coalition had sent, calling for intervention to address the impact of funding cuts to HIV programmes.
In January, the US withdrew billions of rands of funding when it cancelled the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief PEPFAR, which has led to many clinics closing, health staff being retrenched, and people struggling to access HIV health services.
Sibongile Tshabalala, chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign TAC, said there have been cases of patients without referral letters being turned away at hospitals and clinics. In Gauteng, some people were only getting a one or two-month supply of antiretrovirals ARVs, compared to the usual 3-6 month supply, Tshabalala said.
Francois Venter, clinician researcher at Wits University, said that Gauteng was the largest recipient province of PEPFAR. Without this funding, there has been a collapse of HIV testing programmes and pre-exposure prophylaxis PrEP programmes, he said.