by Rentia Agenbag and Khopotso Bodibe
Rentia Agenbag is the Government Support and Programme Review Manager at SANAC
One of the goals of the current NSP is to reduce the rate of new HIV infections by 50% by 2016. To achieve this objective, it is crucial to place prevention at the heart of the country’s AIDS response. SANAC, tasked with overseeing the implementation of the NSP, has convened the Prevention Technical Task Team (PTTT), a special committee to review and guide the development of the country’s prevention arsenal.
The PTTT seeks to strengthen Strategic Objective 2 of the National Strategic Plan – to prevent new HIV, STI and TB infections. The long-term goal of attaining zero infections beyond 2016 will only be achieved through a targeted, evidence-based combination of scientifically-proven and tested, and peer-reviewed prevention interventions.
The PTTT is one of four technical task teams that are part of the structure of the SANAC Secretariat. People serving on the task team are the ‘brain trust’ of SANAC; it brings together a selection of South Africa’s biomedical, behavioural, and structural intervention experts on the latest evidence and international best practice. The importance of addressing every method of HIV prevention is evident in the construction of the task team’s leadership. It is led by biomedical expert, Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim from the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and social scientist, Dr Shereen Usdin of the Soul City Institute for Health Communication and Development.
The PTTT has been carefully selected to advise on the characteristics of the HIV epidemic and the population groups most affected or most-at-risk, for example, sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), mobile and migrant workers, and so on.
The core mandate of the PTTT is to:
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