Abstract As stipulated in the South African Constitution and the National Development Plan, health is one of the priority areas to be addressed by government resources and effort. The national budget for health continues to show a strong public commitment to funding the HIV/AIDS response. Commendable developments in health policy, HIV programming, and resource allocation are particularly evident in the increasing allocations of public funds to HIV, accompanied by increased capacity to
Abstract The highest population of people living with HIV/AIDS is found in South Africa. It has the highest HIV prevalence of 17.9% 1, with an estimated 6,100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. The South African government has over the years taken major steps to avert the disease through implementing health and HIV/AIDS policies, supported by increasing allocations from the national revenue. South Africa has aligned its policies with UNAIDS guidelines for the elimination of the pandemic
Abstract A recent benchmarking exercise done by the Health Systems Trust indicates that spending on health goods and services increased at a relatively slower pace that the compensation of employees, in the last three years (Day and Daviaud, 2014). The goods and services spending grew by only 4% whilst spending on personnel grew by 12% (ibid.) A balance needs to be struck between the two spending areas to ensure that health programmes are delivered to the population as needed. Given the fact
Large scale, public sector provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS began in South Africa in 2004. Since then, up to 2.4 million patients are reported to have initiated ART1. Mortality has fallen and life expectancy risen2, ART patients are returning to the workforce3,4, and the national treatment program is viewed as one of the country’s great successes in public health. Despite the indisputable success of the program, concern about retaining millions of patients on lifelong
The South African Constitution provides the legal framework for the provision of public services in response to public needs. The government budget is a policy document that tells of policy areas that have been prioritized through budget allocations. The budget links the constitutional responsibilities of the state to the actual implementation of priority policies and human rights. As stipulated in the South African Constitution and the National Development Plan (NDP), health is one of the
Background Large scale, public sector provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS began in South Africa in 2004. Since then, up to2.4 million patients are reported to have initiated ART. Mortality has fallen and life expectancy risen, ART patients are returning to the workforce, and the national treatment program is viewed as one of the country’s great successes in public health. Despite the indisputable success of the program, concern about retaining millions of patients on
Abstract The highest population of people living with HIV/AIDS is found in South Africa. It has the highest HIV prevalence of 17.9% 1, with an estimated 6,100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS. The South African government has over the years taken major steps to avert the disease through implementing health and HIV/AIDS policies, supported by increasing allocations from the national revenue. South Africa has aligned its policies with UNAIDS guidelines for the elimination of the pandemic
Background In 2013, the Financial Capacitation for Provincial HIV Managers (FIN-CAP) programme was launched by HE2RO and the Centre for Economic Governance and AIDS in Africa (CEGAA) to help capacitate national and provincial government departments in the areas of financial management, costing, budgeting, and expenditure tracking for HIV, based on the team’s experience in costing the Provincial Strategic Implementation Plans (PSIPs). To reduce duplication or overlap with similar initiatives,
Large-scale provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS began in South Africa in 2004 and has scaled up steadily since then. A decade later, large numbers of patients are now reaching five, eight, or even more years on ART. The long-term biomedical outcomes of treatment have been well documented in South Africa, where antiretroviral provision has been associated with reductions in HIV-associated mortality and increases in life expectancy. Much less is known about the
Background Large-scale provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS began in South Africa in 2004 and has scaled up steadily since then. A decade later, large numbers of patients are now reaching five, eight, or even more years on ART. The long-term biomedical outcomes of treatment have been well documented in South Africa, where antiretroviral provision has been associated with reductions in HIV-associated mortality and increases in life expectancy. Much less is known about the
Background In South Africa, as in many countries, access to paediatric antiretroviral treatment (ART) services for HIV/AIDS has lagged behind that of adult services. Reported coverage of the estimated 300 000 treatment-eligible South African children in 2010 was just 36%, compared with coverage of 55% of the approximately 2.5 million treatment-eligible adults. In response, South Africa’s National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS sets a target of initiating 90% of eligible children on ART and of
Background Under South Africa’s original public sector antiretroviral therapy (ART) guidelines, introduced in 2004, the antiretroviral drug stavudine (d4T) was one of three antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) that formed the mainstay of first-line treatment. Toxicities associated with stavudine use are common, however, and led to calls to substitute for stavudine a drug with fewer side effects. HERO policy brief 4 -- Changing from stavudine to tenofovir - 15 Oct
