AHF breaks ground to extend clinic program in South Africa

In Global, South Africa by AHF

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) broke ground on the first South African clinic to be build from the ground up – Foundation has been providing care in the country since 2002, supports 34 clinics countrywide

Enhancing its services in South Africa, where it currently provides HIV/AIDS care and treatment to over 45,000 individuals, representatives from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), including President Michael Weinstein and representatives from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health, held a  May 12 groundbreaking ceremony in Umlazi for the first AHF clinic in South Africa to be built from the ground up.

AHF established its first treatment site outside the U.S, in 2002 in Umlazi. This was collaboration between AHF and the KZN Department of Health. In 2008, a second site was opened in Middledrift, Eastern Cape Province, in partnership with the Eastern Cape Department of Health. With the current two clinics, AHF has 16,300 patients in care with 10,100 patients receiving ART. The new clinic will be built on a site owned by the organization, where services will be extended to those affected and infected by HIV and AIDS.

AHF also supports 32 additional clinics in the Durban and Eastern Cape Provinces, allowing the nonprofit to provide access to care for more than 45,000 South Africans.

AHF South Africa offers comprehensive HIV and TB treatment and care services, including HIV prevention and testing. These services include antiretroviral medication, CD4 testing and lab monitoring, treatment for opportunistic infections, on-site pharmacy services, condom distribution and community outreach HIV testing services. All these services are provided free of charge.

“We appreciate the opportunity to assist the government with HIV treatment, particularly in KZN,” said Hilary Thulare, Country Programme Director for AHF South Africa. “With this new state-of-the-art clinic, we aim to provide services to more patients so that we can begin to see the overall benefits of treatment as prevention nationally. Expanding our services to more patients is in line with AHF 20×20 global campaign”

Of the thirty-four million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, twenty-four million people still do not have access to AIDS treatment. In response, in November 2013, AHF, together with a number of other organizations, kicked off ‘20×20’ – a groundbreaking global effort to scale up the number of people on lifesaving AIDS treatment to ensure that 20 million people worldwide are on antiretroviral treatment by the year 2020.

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