TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN
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| The Minister of Health and IAS's former president, Dr Julio Montaner (left) enjoying the gift of TAC T-shirts. |
The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is South Africa’s foremost HIV campaigning group.
TAC advocates for increased access to treatment, care and support services for people living with HIV, and for the implementation of the country’s National Strategic Plan on HIV and AIDS (NSP).
TAC has more than 22 000 members and 168 branches with 61 full-time staff members across the country.
TAC’s current five-year strategic plan is closely aligned with monitoring the performance of the NSP. TAC is well placed to track the extent to which government responds to civil society advocacy, and acts upon identified constraints to scaling up the national HIV response.
TAC’s work is focused on six health districts. These are: OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape, uMgungundlovu District in KwaZulu-Natal, Mopani District in Limpopo, Gert Sibande District in Mpumalanga, Ekurhuleni District in Gauteng and Khayelitsha District in Western Cape.
The SARRAH programme is providing core funding to TAC, the bulk of which goes to the salaries of TAC staff and office running costs.
TAC’s quarterly reports describe their work in monitoring and supporting the implementation of the NSP at district-level. The third NSP report (September to November) described the following activities and findings:
- Monitoring the implementation of the new HIV guidelines in the six districts. Overall there was an improvement in drug supply, with fewer stock-outs in this reporting period. Most districts were providing PMTCT for pregnant women and people with TB at CD4 350. Nurses were initiating ART in most districts, and were providing two or three month’s drugs to stable patients. The report also found that more facilities were being accredited to deliver treatment. On the down-side, most districts were experiencing shortages of health workers and there were delays in receiving results of laboratory tests. Also, the report notes that people who are not pregnant or with TB, were being initiated onto treatment at very low CD4 counts. There is a special report on system challenges in Gert Sibande district – which is one of the highest-prevalence HIV districts in the country.
- Support for the NSP and health system strengthening. TAC activities at district level included condom distribution and advocacy for community health workers.
In 2011, a new grant agreement stipulated that TAC report on specific aspects of their work including the number of people mobilised to monitor the implementation of the NSP and the number of rape survivors receiving Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (PEP) in the communities in which they work. Read more...
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TAC's reports monitoring the NSP are available on their website. Read... |
