An assessment of the experiences of patients in the CCMT programme in Tshwane, Gauteng - South Africa

1 Chapter 1 Introduction and Background 1.1 Introduction It is estimated that 5.5 million South Africans are currently infected with HIV and the majority of these infections are as a result of vaginal sexual intercourse transmission, this suggests that the HIV and AIDS epidemic in South Africa is one of the worst in the world (UNAIDS, 2008). All districts and sub-districts in the nine provinces of South Africa are currently having health facilities accredited for provision of ARVs through the Comprehensive HIV and AIDS Care Management and Treatment plan (CCMT). Accreditation of CCMT services is conducted through the collaboration of the National and Provincial Departments of Health including partners and communities. The operational plan for the management of CCMT is a policy which provides direction for the management of HIV and AIDS Care and Treatment and it was developed by the National Department of Health during 2003. This chapter intends to provide an orientation of the background to the study and problem statement. 1.2 Background The first recognized cases of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) were diagnosed in the United States during the early 1980‟s (Goedert & Blattner 1988). During that time it was noted that gay men in New York and San Francisco began to develop uncommon opportunistic infections and cancers that were to some degree resistant to treatment (CDC, 1987). Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) is a lentivirus and it was first isolated in 1983 by Dr Montagnier, Dr Gallo on the other hand was the first scientist to propagate HIV into the cell line in 1984 (Goedert and Blattner 1988). It was evident during the time that HIV was certainly the causative agent for AIDS (Gallo & Montagnier 1988).