“Of those [patients]registered, 9% are children, 59.8% female, and 31.2% male, the new target for 2012/13 financial year is 626 436,” said Dr Dhlomo, presenting the department’s Budget Vote on Thursday.

Dr Dhlomo noted that the province had responded to the call by President Jacob Zuma to have all South Africans know their HIV status in order to access treatment, care and support early.

He reported that the provincial HIV, Counselling and Testing campaign had been successful since it started in April 2010 with the province already having 100% of fixed facilities providing the service.

Seventy four of the facilities are providing ARVs prophylaxis to 4 248 patients and attributed this success to department’s call that sexual assault victims must access post-exposure prophylaxis even before their assault matter is reported to the police.

Currently, there are 546 active support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS with an average of 20 to 25 people per support group. 

Dhlomo announced that the programme, which commenced in eThekwini, Ilembe, UThukela and UMgungundlovu will be rolled out to the rest of the province in 2012/13.