Over 44 000 people are on anti-retroviral treatment in the Umzinyathi District.  This was said at a feed-back meeting for clinic nurses in the District with KZN Health MEC, Dr SM Dhlomo.

The meeting in the Moth Hall, that started over four hours later than scheduled, saw clinic nurses from throughout Umzinyathi gather to give feedback on the NIMART programme introduced about three years.  This in the Nurses Initiated Management Anti-Retroviral Treatment that allows nurses to use their own initiative to recognise, diagnose and treat those suffering from HIV.  In the past, only doctors could do this.

“It is not that we don’t trust our doctors it is just that there are too few of them especially in the rural areas.  That’s why we need our nurses and I am very proud that they have stepped up to the plate with telling results. If not for them, we won’t have all those people in the district on ARVs.”