Police officers undergo HIV tests
"We hope this will encourage the public to follow suit and to know their status."
The Department of Health in Westonaria hosted a successful HIV and Aids awareness campaign recently, which saw numerous police officers from the entire West Rand flock to the event in a bid to know their HIV status.This campaign was held at the Westonaria Banquent Hall.
According to Mmakoma Serala, the Department’s chief community liaison officer in Westonaria the purpose of the event was to teach officers also about other illnesses relating to the pandemic.
“We continuously have HIV and Aids campaigns but the fact is, we never can do enough. Therefore we decided to embark on a vigorous plan to ensure that we spread the message of abstinence and encourage the culture of knowing your status among police officers,” Serela says.
“We hope that this in turn will encourage other members of the community to follow suit and do as our officers are doing, which is leading by example. We trust that this will decrease the number of infections as well as ensure that those who are affected have the support they need,” Serala continues.
She adds, “As a department, they are determined to get rid of the stigma attached to the disease. People need to know that HIV is manageable and it’s nothing to be embarrassed about. However, we do maintain that prevention is always better than cure.”
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