There is Cause to Celebrate over AIDS
Resident Coordinator, United Nations System in Nigeria Dr. Albéric Kacou has said that there is cause to celebrate the World AIDS Day as fewer people are being infected with HIV and few people are dying from the disease.
This, he noted is because people all over the world are taking the lead to stop AIDS, while governments are delivering on their promises to scale up universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
Although he said that since 1988 during the first celebration, the face and response to AIDS has greatly changed. While many of these changes are positive, there is still more that needs to be done and this anniversary offers an opportunity to highlight just how much more still needs to be done. “Indeed, on this 20th World AIDS Day, we have reasons to celebrate and also to be concerned.
Kacou said over the past five years, close to four million people in developing countries have started to take lifesaving drugs; drugs that didn’t exist back in 1988 when the world marked the first World AIDS Day.
“At the same time, HIV prevention programmes have begun to make their mark, with less people becoming infected. Some countries are taking bold steps to meet the real needs of injecting-drug users, vulnerable sex groups such as, sex workers, migrants and other so-called “hard to reach” groups.”
According to him, “as we celebrate these achievements, however, we must not forget that AIDS is far from being over anywhere. AIDS will not go away anytime soon. Indeed there are many reasons for concern.”
As part of the reasons, the UN coordinator said because “we have to find ways to sustain the momentum on what has been started, even in a time of a major economic and financial crisis and also because what we are doing isn’t still anywhere near enough – in terms of both HIV prevention and treatment.”
Kacou said because it is increasingly clear that AIDS is a complex, long wave event that also requires long-term response – including action to secure human rights, eliminate gender inequalities, and strengthen health and social systems.
Going down memory lane, he noted twenty years ago, some ten million people were living with HIV. Since then, the epidemic has tripled in size and still growing.
For every two people who start taking treatment today, another five become newly infected. So instead of getting shorter, the queues of people requiring antiretroviral therapy are getting longer and longer. There is therefore a real and urgent need as ever for a brilliant diverse coalition that is ready to lead and deliver on AIDS.
According to the Sentinel Surveys carried out in Nigeria, HIV prevalence increased among pregnant women from 1.8 per cent in 1991 to 5.8 per cent in 2001.
In 2005, it was 4.4 per cent, but today it is about 4.6 per cent. Although this may not mean an increase in trend, it is worth investigating further.
Nigeria, he noted is among the first three countries with the largest population of people living with HIV in the world.
“This is not an enviable position on an HIV infection league table. We need to intensify prevention in this country. It is the key to a reduced incidence of HIV infection and ultimately putting Nigeria on a favourable end of the league table,” he said.
He commended Nigeria which he said two years ago, set targets and came up with a roadmap towards achieving Universal Access to prevention, treatment, care and support.
“We all need to work together to ensure that we achieve these targets. Critical to this is leadership. Leadership is necessary to ensure that all the players in the HIV arena are coordinated and synergised with each other in line with the World AIDS Day Slogan - Empower to deliver.
Quoting from the message of the United Nations Secretary General, “The challenge now is to sustain leadership. “We have to build on what we have started. And we have to maintain this momentum. We have to end the stigma and discrimination that still stop so many people from learning how to prevent HIV and get treatment”.
The need to lead, empower and deliver on AIDS is as real and urgent today as ever. Now is the time to empower everyone – individuals, organisations, governments – to deliver on the promises we have all made, he said.
Kacou promised that the UN system will support the HIV and AIDS National response through the UN Joint Programme of Support that spawns out of the overall UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF, 2009-2012), recently signed between the Federal Government and the UN system in Nigeria.
“We in the UN, pledge our support to the Government of Nigeria and all stakeholders towards an efficient and effective national response to HIV,’’ he added.
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