Yet again South Africans are geared up for another South African AIDS conference to be held at the ICC, Durban in KwaZulu Natal. This year we will be celebrating the 9th SA AIDS Conference under the theme “Unprecedented Innovations and Technologies: HIV and change”, and it is with great pleasure to announce that Humana People to People South Africa will once again be part of this prestigious event.
The conference is one of the most prominent medical meetings in Southern Africa and is the second largest HIV conference in the world, attended by over 3,000 people, 25% of which are from countries other than South Africa. It is hosted by Dira Sengwe and organised by The Foundation for Professional Development (FPD) who also serve as the Conference Secretariat for the Conference Committee Structures. Delegates include scientists, medical practitioners and representatives from the public sector, NGO and faith-based sectors and the corporate sector.
A new HIV study released in 2019 by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), found that almost one in five (17%) of South African adults aged between 15 and 49 have HIV – a five percentage point increase from 2000.” The study further suggest that South Africa’s HIV adult prevalence rate is much higher than most African countries, including Kenya (5.6%), Nigeria (3%), Namibia (13.8%), Zimbabwe (13.5%) and Mozambique (11.9%).
Since 2002, Humana People to People in South Africa (HPPSA) has been actively involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS to help the country reach the 90-90-90 strategy through its HIV and AIDS prevention, care, treatment and support programme known as Total Control of the Epidemic, widely known as TCE. TCE is based on the belief that “only the people can liberate themselves from HIV and AIDS, the epidemic”. It is based on the idea that when people are mobilized and empowered, and equipped with the correct knowledge, skills and tools, they will be able to stop the spread of the epidemic in their lives.
In recent years, TCE has reached out to areas where people are most at risk for HIV infection, such as in informal settlements, mapped hotspots and farms. Humana People to People South Africa with funding from USAID, KFW and Department of Health has then, under TCE, initiated 2 programs that assist to reduce and control the spread of HIV. The programs are currently operating in 3 Provinces; Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Mpumalanga; providing Home Based HIV Counselling and Testing Services focusing on adolescent girls and young women, couples, migrant populations, truckers and sex workers.
For the success of the project HPPSA joined forces with local organisations that have the ground experience and understanding of our target population because we strongly believe that working together can assist to turn around the HIV prevalence rate in South Africa. One of the long-term goals of the programs is to implement high yield, community-based HIV counselling and testing (CB-HCT) services with an aim to identify people living with HIV and to effectively link them into HIV and TB care and treatment programmes, as well as to identify HIV negative individuals at risk of HIV infection and to effectively link them into evidence-based HIV prevention programs. The overall goal of these programs is to prevent new HIV infections and by empowering people with knowledge and let them be in charge of their own health, the mission is possible!!!
Come to stand Number 42 at the AIDS conference from the 11 to the 14 and interact with us.
For more info, please contact us.
