10 Aug 2026

After 30 years of transforming the Botswana’s response to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), tuberculosis and public health, the Vice President and Minister of Finance, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe, says Botswana and United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s (US CDC) next chapter must build on scientific rigor, evidence and partnership that converted knowledge into years of life.

In his keynote address during the US CDC Botswana’s 30th Anniversary Science Summit in Gaborone recently, Mr Gaolathe said the partnership between Botswana and the US CDC had joined scientific rigour to public purpose, leaving behind lives protected, families sustained and futures made possible.

He said the country faced a health emergency with grave social and economic consequences in the 1990s when HIV and tuberculosis entered homes, workplaces and classrooms, but government chose to confront the emergency openly by investing national resources, taking difficult decisions and allowing evidence to guide policy.

Through the CDC, the Vice President said the US had stood with Botswana since 1995, whilst research through Botswana-USA partnership (BOTUSA) strengthened tuberculosis surveillance, diagnosis and prevention, supported the integration of TB and HIV services and informed the national response while carrying lessons from Botswana into the wider world.

“The launch of Masa in 2002, the national programme of free antiretroviral treatment and the first undertaking of its kind on the African continent, required trained health workers, dependable laboratories, reliable medicines, strong supply systems and data capable of following patients through treatment,” he said.

“The CDC Botswana and its partners helped build that operating capacity, while the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) widened access to testing, treatment and prevention, modernised laboratories, introduced technologies and trained health professionals across the country,” he added.

Further, Mr Gaolathe said surveillance, monitoring and evaluation also enabled programmes to correct course whilst lives still depended upon the next decision.

He said the country had since become the first country to attain World Health Organisation Gold Tier status on the Path to Elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, while the 2021 Botswana AIDS Impact Survey confirmed that the country had surpassed the United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 95-95-95 targets four years ahead of schedule.

Behind those percentages, the Vice President said were citizens who knew their status, received treatment and lived healthy, productive lives, while BAIS-V required government to measure policy by the distance it travelled and the lives it touched.

Additionally, Mr Gaolathe said laboratories had also been strengthened, surveillance systems had learned to recognise patterns before they became crises and health workers had carried science into daily practice.

He expressed gratitude that nine public health laboratories had attained ISO 15189 accreditation, while more than 250 public health professionals had been trained through the Field Epidemiology Training Programme, with those investments forming part of the permanent intelligence and operating strength of the State.

Mr Gaolathe said the HIV response changed the course of an epidemic and the habits of public policy, teaching institutions to coordinate, account, monitor and correct course, whilst preserving the country’s ownership of its national response.

“The first 30 years showed what became possible when courage accepted the discipline of science, friendship produced capability and institutions remained anchored in the dignity of human life,” he added. ENDS