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Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has launched the fourth Annual First Things First HIV Counselling and Testing campaign which for the first time extends to the higher education and training sector.
The national campaign aims to encourage students at tertiary institutions, especially incoming first year students to take responsibility for knowing their HIV status.
The campaign is a key programme of the Higher Education and Training HIV/ AIDS Programme and is implemented in partnership with a number of entities including the South African National AIDS Council.
At the official launch held at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University today, Mostsoaledi said that knowledge is a cornerstone for proactively managing one's health.
Mostsoaledi says students today are facing challenges head on with respect to HIV.
"We have already seen an increase in the lifespan of South Africans which is a direct result of people who are HIV positive getting treatment," the Minister said. "In addition, having large numbers of people who are HIV positive and on treatment and virally suppressed, helps to decrease new infections".
A key programme of the Higher Education and Training HIV/ AIDS Programme (HEAIDS), First Things First is a public-private initiative implemented in partnership with a number of entities including the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC).
The event kicks off a sector-wide mobilisation campaign targeting 23 higher education institutions and some 50 Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges (TVETs).
"The extension of our mandate to support the development of a programmatic response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic at TVET colleges is a milestone achievement," Dr Ramneek Ahluwalia, the Director of HEAIDS, said.
Through the involvement of TVETs, the sector's HIV prevention, care and treatment programme is extended to the 500 000 young people who study at TVETs.
"From a focus on universities, with approximately 126 campuses countrywide, we will now be looking after a cumulative population of more than two million, spread over more than 400 campuses," Dr Ahluwalia said.
Dr Ahluwalia said the expansion of HEAIDS interventions to the 50 TVETs was made possible by a R27-million grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
The funding secured by HEAIDS has allowed it to appoint a coordinator for each province to drive the roll-out of an increasingly comprehensive HIV/AIDS mitigation programme.
