SPOTLIGHT: WORLD AIDS DAY: ‘Welcome Back Service’ aims to help people get back on HIV treatment

While reliable estimates for 2020 will be available only in mid-2021 at the earliest, it is possible that the percentage of people diagnosed with HIV who are on antiretroviral therapy might decline in 2020 compared with 2019. This is because Covid-19 and the associated lockdowns have constituted one of the largest shocks to South Africa’s public healthcare system in many years.

“HIV has evolved to become a chronic illness [and] people can live a near to normal life expectancy if treatment is taken adequately. Because patients require life-long treatment, they can come across many problems throughout their journey that [may] cause them to fall in and out of care.

Now, in an effort to get services disrupted by Covid-19 back on track, Arendse says the department of health has “a health promotion team who work for MSF and many of them work in communities in Khayelitsha and provide health education on HIV and the importance of staying on treatment, especially during Covid-19.

National health department spokesperson Popo Maja says the department’s Welcome Back campaign is a pre-existing initiative that is being upscaled in light of the Covid-19 impact on healthcare services, especially to HIV services. “Many of our clients who use drugs live on the streets, and some were afraid to access services for fear of being put in camps. Our teams were also [prevented] from providing services in some camps,” she said, adding that this meant fewer people were accessing HIV testing, fewer were started on ARVs and some were missing appointments or not collecting their medication.

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