11 Dec 2017

Head of prevention and cure of HIV/AIDS in the Greater Francistown District Health Management Team (DHMT), Dr Karl Jaba says in 2017, 2 440 people have tested positive.

Speaking at the Francistown District AIDS day commemoration recently, he said as of October 2017 nearly 34 170 people living with HIV were on treatment.

“We have observed a decline in new HIV infections and in AIDS related death” he noted.

He also noted that the decline in new HIV infections and in AIDS related deaths could be attributed to scientific advances that have been made in HIV treatment and the laws protecting them, thus making people understand about more about the conditions of HIV/AIDS.

He said the 90-90-90 HIV initiative target to end the AIDS epidemic was aimed at improving health by scaling up HIV testing and viral suppression by 2020.

Dr Jaba said despite the progress, HIV/AIDS continued to be a significant global public health issue.

He said this year they had seen significant steps on the way to meeting the 90-90-90 treatment targets towards ending AIDS.

“We were able to do community testing, had kick-out campaigns, house-to-house testing, soccer tournaments, couple HIV testing, wellness programmes, testing at church and work place,” he explained.

He, however, noted that they had challenges of men still coming in low numbers to test for HIV and shunning other health services. He noted that it was still vital to raise money, increase awareness, fight prejudice and improve education regarding HIV/AIDS.

He noted that the world would not achieve the sustainable development goals which included the target of ending AIDS by 2030 without people attaining the right to health.  He explained that by attaining the right to health people’s dreams and promises could be fulfilled. ENDS