The authors undertook the current study to describe the role that public access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) has played in the development and efficacy of HIV/AIDS prevention programs in Khayelitsha, a poor township in South Africa's Western Cape. The researchers documented prevention programming offered in the township since the early 1990s. Extensive interviews, combined with data collection, were used to study the effect of ARV availability on prevention programs and disease stigma.

The information the researchers gathered suggests that the 1999 introduction of mother-to-child HIV transmission prevention programs, together with three HIV treatment clinics run in 2000 by Doctors Without Borders, were turning points in the region's fight against HIV/AIDS.

"These programs have provided incentives for HIV testing, galvanized HIV/AIDS educators to reach populations most at risk, and decreased HIV incidence rates in Khayelitsha compared to other area in the Western Cape," the researchers concluded. "Lessons learned in Khayelitsha about the value of treatment availability in facilitating prevention efforts can inform the development of comprehensive approaches to HIV/AIDS in other resource-poor areas."

Back to other news for September 19, 2005

Search the Newsroom archive