Big prize for HIV test

Lucky Maureen Janse, from the Western Cape town of St Helena Bay, not only knows her HIV status - she is R50000 richer for getting tested.

Her name was entered into a draw in the Western Cape's Know Your Status & Win campaign, launched last month.

The province's residents were encouraged to have an HIV test and stand a chance to win one of five prizes of R10000 or the grand prize of R50000.

Though organisations such as the SA Medical Association slammed the campaign, Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has chosen to reserve comment.

He said he wants Western Cape health MEC Theunis Botha to "sit with me and report" on the campaign.

"We haven't been told anything. Yet every single campaign on health around the country, people report it to the National Health Council because whatever you do affects the whole country," said Motsoaledi yesterday.

"Western Cape never reported to us. That is why I'm saying we will need time to understand and then we will release a statement in the new year."

Western Cape Premier Helen Zille yesterday drew Janse's name .

At first Janse wanted to remain anonymous but yesterday afternoon the mother of two sent Zille a "spontaneous" SMS to say: "I thought it would be good to have my name known to the media to encourage others also to test."

Zille said indications were that the campaign had increased the number of people getting tested.

"This was a pilot programme to test the effectiveness of programmes aimed at incentivising behaviour change as part of the provincial government's longer-term strategy to reduce the burden of disease in Western Cape through promoting wellness and preventing illness," said Zille.

She said the province spent R661-million on HIV/Aids prevention in the 2010-2011 financial year.

More than 10600 people were tested for HIV at the campaign's 204 testing stations around the province.

Zille drew criticism and praise for yet another controversial campaign this week - the Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Project. Fourteen girls received bursaries for getting good marks - and not falling pregnant while living in "an area in which there is a high prevalence of teenage pregnancies".