The Treatment Action Campaign are calling for a six month ARV supply for people doing well on treatment, as they say longer ARV supplies support long term retention. Currently, national guidelines stipulate that most people should get a three-month supply of ARVs.
Hundreds of Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) members took to the streets of East London calling for six-month antiretroviral (ARV) refills for all stable people with HIV, citing increased chances of people staying on treatment, among other reasons.
The march came as the Deputy President and chairperson of the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) Paul Mashatile, and health minister Aaron Motsoaledi held the commemoration of World Aids Day, in Buffalo City Municipality, Eastern Cape on Sunday.
According to the TAC around two million people living with HIV are still not on HIV treatment. They say some do not know their HIV status, some know but have not started treatment, and many people have started treatment and then stopped.
“The dysfunction in our clinics is a key reason that people stop taking their ARVs,” said TAC national chairperson, Sibongile Tshabalala.
“We leave home in the early hours of the morning, only to wait all day to be seen. Our files take hours to find or go missing completely. If we are late for our appointments, we can be shouted at and sent to the back of the queue as punishment. If you don’t have a transfer letter or an ID, or if you are a member of a key population you can be refused ARVs altogether.”
A woman in the Eastern Cape said: “The clinic staff don’t always treat you right.
“They are very stigmatising especially to sex workers. Also, all the people who are collecting ARVs have to go to this one container so everyone at the clinic knows you are HIV positive, there is no confidentiality.”
Another woman from Gauteng said she had to go to the clinic every second month and wait hours to be seen.
“I am often late because I travel to different provinces working for TAC.
When I return to the facility I’m given an attitude... I’m told how I’m not serious about my life before my side of the story can be heard. If I could get a six-month supply it would mean me going to the clinic less and having to deal less with the attitude of the clinic staff.”
Currently, national guidelines stipulate that most people should get a three month supply of ARVs. The TAC explained the guidelines were revised in 2023 based on strong evidence showing longer ARV supplies support long term retention. So they also allow for people to get a six-month supply from their clinic when they collect their script. However they said there was no implementation plan for the six-month supply.
“The department says it wants to get more than one million people to start or get back onto treatment by the end of 2025.
“We are marching today to demand that the National Department of Health urgently finalises its implementation plan including supply chain management processes to ensure that all stable people get a six-month supply of ARVs if they want it,” said TAC general secretary, Anele Yawa.
The Health Department did not respond to questions by deadline.
In his speech at the commemoration event, Mashatile said as of June 2024, only 79% of people who knew their status were on treatment, and 93% of people on treatment were virally suppressed.
“Improvement across the 95-95-95 indicators was more pronounced in males compared to females. As a country, we need to further increase HIV screening, diagnosis, and treatment initiation while maintaining treatment adherence to keep its viral suppression rates high. The fight against HIV and
Aids requires all of us to act together. We have made satisfactory progress, but like in any long march to the golden goal, the last miles become tougher.”
He added that the Department of Health was working together with the SANAC and development partners to trace 1.1 million people living with HIV and linking them to treatment in the next year.
Cape Times
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