Deputy Chair, the Minister of Correctional Services is the former Minister of Home Affairs, so I stand in as her Deputy whenever she is unavailable. [Laughter.]
Hon Ntwanambi, the total number of inmates on antiretroviral drugs, ARVs, at the end of the last quarter of 2009, was 7 038, distributed as follows: KwaZulu-Natal had 2 361; Gauteng had 2 119; Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West together had 1 023; the Eastern Cape had 567; Free State and Northern Cape had 542; and the Western Cape had 426.
There were 1 380 inmates on the ARV-readiness programme at the end of the last quarter of 2009. These are inmates who are eligible for treatment and who are undergoing the treatment-readiness programme by meeting with treatment counsellors for individual information sessions or treatment, by understanding the importance of adherence to treatment and of attending all scheduled pretreatment visits.
There is no prescribed period for the frequency of counselling sessions. This is dependent upon the individual patient's acceptance of his or her HIV status, and their readiness and understanding of the implications of antiretroviral therapy, ART. The minimum is one session per week for two weeks, to monitor compliance and adherence to Cotrimoxazole treatment. Inmates are placed on Cotrimoxazole preventive therapy, CPT, to prevent opportunistic infections such as pneumocystis carinii, pneumonia, meningitis, skin infections and candidiasis.
They attend information and education sessions on nutrition, positive living, support groups, discussions about the drugs and possible side effects as well as the importance of reporting side effects. These sessions are presented by various professionals, such as professional nurses, social workers, treating clinicians, dieticians and others.
Inmates then undergo a final treatment-readiness assessment as determined by the treating health care professionals.
On the third question, the department is taking steps to expand the distribution of ARVs in correctional centres, in line with the presidential mandate announced on 1 December 2009.