Phaahla: Covid-19 has not had a severe impact on people living with HIV/Aids

The Deputy Minister of Health Joe Phaahla says the Covid-19 pandemic has not severely impacted people living with HIV/Aids, with people with comorbidities such as diabetes and high blood pressure at a higher risk of developing complications when infected by the coronavirus.

Phaahla was speaking to the media at the World Aids Day commemoration event on Tuesday in Soweto, where Deputy President David Mabuza was expected to deliver the keynote address.

Phaahla said World Aids Day was an important day not only in South Africa but across the world because it was a day nations across the globe “recommit” to focusing on efforts to combat the HIV/Aids epidemic and ensure the 90-90-90 treatment target to help end the epidemic is reached.

The 90-90-90 treatment target aims to ensure that by 2020, 90% of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of all people who are HIV positive are on antiretroviral treatment and 90% of all people receiving antiretroviral treatment will have viral suppression, Phaahla said.

The deputy minister said the Covid-19 pandemic had caused some disruption in ensuring that HIV programmes were sustained but the department was now recovering from this and was reviewing these programmes across the country.

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Phaahla said some districts in KwaZulu-Natal were close to reaching the 90-90-90 treatment target and that the department was working to ensure that the target was reached in other parts of the country.

Considering that over more than seven million people were living with HIV in South Africa, the department was concerned about the impact the Covid-19 pandemic would have but according to the country’s health facilities and researchers, the pandemic had no major impact for people living with HIV when they contracted the coronavirus, Phaahla said.

The deputy minister added that as long as people living with HIV remained on their treatment and have viral suppression, then they were not affected that much by Covid-19.

Phaahla said commemorations like the one in Soweto were important because they were directed to young people who were the most affected by the epidemic and the most vulnerable.

Young adults and adolescents, in particular young girls and women, were the most affected by the epidemic and the most vulnerable, the deputy minister added.

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