Lentswe, Klerksdorp - The North West Department of Health in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda District is working on closing the HIV treatment gap. Almost 8 000 patients need to return to treatment. According to the Chief Director: District Health Services, Bongani Patrick Maboe, the department is actively running a campaign with multiple outreach services across the district to find HIV positive clients to initiate and keep on treatment, and to return missing clients to treatment. Returning to treatment and adhering to it, has been proven to be the only way to close the 1.1 million gap of missing HIV clients in the system. The District has been allocated to find and return to treatment 7 795 clients.
Maboe says even though the district has not yet reached its target of clients to reach, it is critical to note the progress that has been made in reaching clients to initiate and re-initiate on treatment. “The efforts of our departmental officials and the residents’ care for their wellbeing is greatly commendable as we show great strides of progress in bringing back clients to care,” he said.
The District Health Services would like to further encourage more community involvement, urging residents in the district to help contribute in closing the gap by getting tested, knowing their status, getting and staying on treatment.
The Chief Director says it is important to remind residents that the district has weekly out-reach activities and campaigns in all three sub districts in an effort to reach more clients and ensure initiation and returning to treatment.
The district engages in these activities to bring testing and screening services closer to the residents.
The “Close the Treatment Gap” campaign in South Africa aims to put an additional 1.1 million people living with HIV on treatment.
This campaign, launched by the Minister of Health in February 2025, focuses on identifying and supporting those who know their HIV status but are not receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART).
