28 Nov 2018

Assistant Minister of Health and Wellness, Mr Biggie Butale says HIV/AIDS situation underlines health and social aspects of the society.

Speaking at the Mayor’s 90-90-90 Test Drive initiative in Lobatse on November 27, Mr Butale said HIV/AIDS was a disease closely tied to humanity.

He said it affected sexuality, national productivity and family life.

Mr Butale therefore said it was imperative that the 90-90-90 goals were attained in order to reduce the impact and burden of HIV/AIDS in the society.

He said Botswana was faced with the challenge of ensuring that 90 per cent of people living with HIV knew their status and placed on treatment.

“This stage is the most crucial of the campaign since it is the foundation of the other two 90s,” Mr Butale said.

Botswana launched the Treat All campaign in 2016, which Mr Butale said was in line with the second 90 whose aim is to have 90 per cent of people living with HIV initiated on treatment.

He said while those with HIV were initiated on ARVs, they should also receive care and support, so that they continued treatment and lived healthy and productive lives and that was where the third 90 came in, to ensure that those taking ARVs continued doing so without fail for viral suppression.

Mr Butale said the national response to HIV/AIDS recorded notable achievements in areas of Antiretroviral Therapy, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and care of orphans and vulnerable children.

Despite these achievements, he said many challenges remained such as under performance of the national response in prevention outcomes.

He said HIV continued to be exacerbated by multiple concurrent partnerships, which increased from 11.2 per cent in 2008 to 15.8 per cent in 2013 as well as declining condom use from 90.2 per cent in 2008 to 81.9 per cent in 2013.

Mr Butale therefore implored residents of Lobatse to test and know their status, saying the elimination of HIV was possible if only people could start testing and adhering to treatment and prevention.

He said commitment from political leadership and community participation would go a long way in eliminating HIV. Ends