SHIRLEY NKEPE
Staff Writer
5/25/2004 12:49:45 AM (GMT +2)

The Ministry of Health (MoH) yesterday launched a booklet dubbed KITSO Expansion Plan to boost the anti-HIV/AIDS war.

The booklet was presented to the Deputy Permanent Secretary Dr Patson Mazonde at Baylor children's clinic by the chairperson of the committee that designed the Expansion Plan, Peter Navario. Navario who works for the Baylor-Botswana partnership, indicated that the plan is a syllabus meant to guide MoH and its training partners in the coordination of the HIV/AIDS health professional training expansion efforts.

"This plan will ensure comprehensive, standardised and coordinated HIV/AIDS training, as well as bring all future HIV/AIDS-focused trainings under the aegis and direction of the Ministry of Health," he said.

Giving a vote of thanks, Mazonde said that the Plan would be employed to empower health care providers with expertise to care for AIDS patients.

"If indeed sixty-to-seventy percent of our patients are ailing from AIDS related diseases, then it goes without saying that there is dire need for more HIV/AIDS health carers," he said. Mazonde said that the Plan would also allow the Ministry and its partners to reflect on their failures and achievements, thereby making it easy to make necessary training adjustments.

He applauded the Ministry's HIV/AIDS partners, among them the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships (ACHAP), BOTUSA, Baylor International Paediatric AIDS Initiative, Ministry of Local Government and University of Botswana, for assisting MoH to come up with the Plan. "We are grateful to ACHAP that they already have pledged to financially support the proposed coordinator of the plan, for two years," he said.

The implementation of the plan will start very soon according to Mazonde. "We hope to put up the advertisement for the position of the coordinator, next week. On one hand, the Ministry of Local Government will mobilise different sectors for training sessions.

"By end of June, we should be starting," he said. Study modules proposed for KITSO include: Introduction to HIV/AIDS, Introduction to HIV/AIDS for traditional Health Practitioners, Introduction to AIDS Clinical Care Fundamentals, AIDS Clinical Care Fundamentals and Comprehensive Nursing Care Issues.

Others are Caring for the Caregivers, Management of HIV-Associated Illnesses, Advanced Course in Paediatric HIV/AIDS, Laboratory Fundamentals, Home-Based Care for Caregivers, Elements of HIV Counselling, Foundations of HIV/AIDS Counselling, Routine Testing and Medication Adherence Counselling Course.

As part of the Expansion Plan, the KITSO Planning Committee recommended the establishment of the KITSO AIDS Training Unit, within MoH's Department of AIDS Prevention and Care. The proposed unit will serve as the locus of coordination for the program- "house the program staff, including a KITSO National Coordinator and database".

The creation of a KITSO Advisory Board to represent the interests of KITSO partner organisations and assist with monitoring and evaluation of the program is also crucial, according to the committee that designed the Plan.