Botswana's national HIV treatment programme, known as Masa, meaning new dawn in Setswana, which began providing antiretroviral therapy through public-sector health facilities on January 21, 2002, making Botswana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to launch a national antiretroviral treatment programme. The programme followed a 2001 pledge that made Botswana the first African country to promise free antiretroviral drugs to its citizens, an effort backed by five-year commitments of 50 million dollars each from the Merck Company Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Masa has offered free, universal therapy according to national treatment guidelines since its launch. Clinical outcomes improved sharply as the programme matured: among people enrolled in a given year, the share who died within that year fell from 63 percent, 88 of 140 patients, in 2002 to just 0.8 percent, 13 of 1,599 patients, by 2010.
Facts
Launch YearForbes (2003) records enrollment beginning at initial sites from January 2001 under the ACHAP partnership before the programme reached this national milestone in 2002. Sponsoring BodyGovernment of Botswana, together with the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships, the public-private partnership the Merck Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation formed with Botswana's government in 1999. 2 Target PopulationAll Botswana citizens diagnosed with HIV, who receive free antiretroviral therapy under national treatment guidelines. 3 Geographic Scope Measured ResultsBy November 2012, more than 200,000 people were receiving antiretroviral therapy through Masa. 1 Classification
Program KindDisease Surveillance Program 1 Connections
Delivers Practice
Entity-backed identity for the program-kind enum value this public health program already carries, resolved to a health practice by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The program-kind fact itself stays on the program unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
Sources
1. aidsmap: Botswana ART Programme Achieves Good Results
aidsmap (NAM Publications)Programme launch sentence
In 2002, Botswana became the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to introduce a national ART programme.
Outcomes sentence
By November 2012, over 200,000 people were receiving ART thanks to Masa.
View the Source 2. Forbes 2003: Gates and Merck Combat AIDS In Botswana
Forbes, 2003Partnership formation sentenceQuote, Partnership formation sentence
The Merck Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation teamed in 1999 with Botswana's government in a public-private alliance called the African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnerships
3. CDC Success Story: Botswana Achieves Gold Tier Status
United States Centers for Disease Control and PreventionProgramme description, treatment-access clause
provides free HIV treatment to all citizens
Programme description, national-programme clause
Africa's first national antiretroviral therapy (ART) program
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