If the Mpumalanga government is serious about quelling new infection cases of HIV it should locate the missing patients and bring them back to treatment, according to Thandi Maluka, director of Positive Women Network PWN.
PWN is a non-profit organisation representing HIV-positive women and also fighting for the rights of women who are ill-treated at health care facilities.
It was recently learnt that several people who tested positive for HIV had stopped taking the treatment and disappeared, thus reportedly contributing to the growing number of infections in the province.
Support groups must returnSpeaking to The Citizen last week, Maluka said the government needed to come up with a strategy to assist in addressing the problem if it was serious about minimising new HIV infection cases in the province.
To fight this challenge of missing patients on treatment and also prevent it from happening, we feel support groups and adherence clubs must come back in our facilities because it is really hard for a newly infected person to adhere to treatment when they do not even understand the importance of taking it, she said.
