By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
As the world commemorates the 2020 World AIDS Day, WHD, today, the World Health Organization, WHO, has declared that at least 81% of Africans already know their HIV status.
This was contained in a message delivered today by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti to mark the day in the African continent.
Moeti said, ” 2020 is a milestone year towards ending AIDS epidemics and 81 % of the people living with HIV know their status.”
“Among them, 70 percent of adults and 53 percent of children are receiving lifelong antiretroviral therapy, ART.”
The WHO Regional Director noted that the WAD is marked every year on the 1st of December by the global community to show support for people living with HIV and to remember those who have lost their lives to AIDS.
According to the global health body, worldwide, there are 38 million people living with HIV and 67% of them reside in the African Region.
In 2019, more than 1 million people in the Region were newly infected with HIV, accounting for 60% of the global total, and sadly, 440,000 people in the Region died from HIV-related causes.
Speaking on the 2020 WAD theme “global solidarity and shared responsibility” was chosen because of the context of the COVID-19 pandemic as it reveals how important it is for the world to come together, with determined leadership from governments and communities to sustain and expand access to essential services, including HIV prevention, testing, treatment and care.
WHO noted that with the COVID-19 pandemic it is becoming even more challenging for countries to provide these services, particularly in areas affected by conflict, disasters, outbreaks and rapid population growth.
WHO lamented that presently in the African Region new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths are not reducing fast enough to meet the Sustainable Development Goal target of ending AIDS epidemics by 2030.
Children living with HIV are not being adequately identified for HIV treatment. Girls and women aged 15–24 years account for 37% of all new HIV infections, and stigma and discrimination especially against key populations continues to create barriers to service access.
And then the good news is that Eighty-five percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women living with HIV are on ART, which protects their health and prevents HIV transmission to their newborn infants.
The health body however commended countries and stakeholders for contributing to the progress on HIV in the African Region, and urged them to come up with innovative ways to keep services going during the COVID-19 pandemic.
WHO called for global solidarity and shared responsibility among all stakeholders to ensure integrated, people-centred, quality care and an uninterrupted supply of essential commodities for HIV services.
The rights of women and girls, and gender equality, must be at the centre to stop new HIV infections among girls and young women, it emphazied.
Further tasked communities, especially people living with HIV, to be proactive in your self-care and in understanding how to prevent the spread of infections.
This World AIDS Day let us all demand global solidarity and shared responsibility to maintain HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond as we strive to achieve the 2030 targets, Moeti said.
