The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) has called for the rapid introduction of pharmacy ATMs in the province to make access to chronic medication easier for patients.
In a list of demands delivered to the Department of Health, the TAC asked that medicine distribution in the province be decentralised by August this year.
“In addition, we recommend the piloting of pharmacy ATMs as showcased in Gauteng within this fast-track model for chronic conditions.”
The TAC said the rate of new HIV infections remained at 35 000 and anti-retroviral coverage in the province was 52.3% in 2016.
“Based on these figures, we estimate that more than 360 000 people in the Eastern Cape who could benefit from treatment were not receiving treatment.
“Of those on treatment, only 73.4% were virally suppressed, indicating that we need to do much more to improve adherence levels,” the report stated.
TAC Eastern Cape chairman Mziwethu Faku said a renewed fight against HIV/Aids was one of the three biggest health issues identified in the province.
Earlier this year, medical officials also raised the alarm, saying that HIV was taking a toll on young, pregnant women in the province, with many of them arriving at Dora Nginza Hospital with fullblown Aids.
This caused a spike in maternal deaths over the last year.
The Eastern Cape department of health lists the main causes of maternal death in the province as HIV/Aids, hypertension and complications associated with bleeding.
Sources at the hospital said the majority of deaths between 2016 and the start of this year were due to HIV, with many of the women who died from rural or poor areas with little access to primary healthcare.
Faku said it had included in its list of demands to the Eastern cape department of health that by the end of the year, 100% of primary health facilities across the province must have functional adherence clubs (to motivate patients to stick to their treatment), support groups, and fast-track models of care for people living with HIV, linked to all primary health facilities to improve treatment adherence rates in the province.