Namibia: expanded antiretroviral treatment shows benefits

WHO/James Oatway 2009

Timely and expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Namibia is showing benefits for HIV-positive people, according to Dr Kevin De Cock, who visited Katutura State Hospital in Windhoek, Namibia, during his tenure as the Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS Department.
Thanks to ART scale-up, most of those seeking HIV treatment at the Katutura facility are now managed as outpatients. The majority of HIV-positive people being treated with ART as in-patients looked well, noted Dr De Cock, showing the benefits of timely access to antiretroviral therapy.
Namibia has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world, with an estimated 15.3% of the adult population affected. At the end of 2007, some 52,000 people in Namibia were receiving ART, according to the latest available figures.
This photo story profiles a hospital's ART programme and its health benefits for local people.