HEALTH Minister Sylvia Masebo says young people are contributing to nearly half of the new HIV infections in the country.
And Masebo has revealed that more than 1.2 million people in the country are on life saving antiretroviral drugs.
Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Zambia Michael Gonzales says there is a need to educate and empower young women, adolescents so that they can access healthier HIV prevention options.
Speaking during the commemoration of this year’s world AIDS day held under the theme “let communities lead”, Masebo thanked the US government and other partners for their continuous support towards the fight against HIV/AIDS
“As communities lead, governments will also lead, this leadership has and will continue being led from the highest political office in the land, all the way to the ward level. As communities lead, they should not forget the various positive strides in response to HIV and AIDS. For instance, there are more than 1.2 million people on life saving antiretroviral drugs, the number of children affected through mother to child transmission has dropped from around 35% in the year 2000 to less than 3% currently. Fewer people have died of AIDS related causes this year. Thanks to the people of America and all other partners who have made it possible for us to live as though there is no HIV and AIDS anymore, but this is not a license for young girls because it’s like people are very casual nowadays especially young girls, school going girls,” she said.
“HIV/AIDS is real and it’s still there. It’s the same with Covid, people think Covid has finished, no it has not finished. Now we are lucky that we have ARVs which can keep us alive and I think it’s up to you as an individual to take care of yourself and be a responsible citizen. Ensure that you avoid carelessly infecting yourself because treatment is very costly. Today’s AIDS day is my serious message from me as your Minister of Health to the young girls, young boys, let’s take responsibility because there are many tools that can help you not get infected apart from you yourself being strong spirited and knowing what to do and how to do it. Please let us work together to ensure that we protect the young girls, the adolescents and our children”.
Masebo bemoaned that young people were contributing to nearly half of the new HIV infections.
She said only when radical measures were taken to curb new HIV cases would the country’s vision of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 be realised.
“As communities lead, they should remember that we are still faced with challenges in certain sub populations. For example, young people are contributing to nearly half of the new infections and unless radical measures are taken to curb these new HIV cases being recorded, the country’s vision of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 may not be realised. As communities lead, let the various implementing partners and civil society organisations lead too, only through this we will be able to effectively support community leadership. Let us provide and fill the community with information needed to equip them to lead and this includes them knowing where new HIV infections are, which populations are mostly affected and what barriers are fueling new infections. We are grateful to the American people for having supported us, the US government has been indeed an all-weather friend to us and many strides we have made have only been possible luckily through their support,” Masebo said.
And Gonzales said there was a need to educate and empower adolescents so that they could access healthier prevention options in order to keep themselves healthy.
“We need to educate and empower young women and adolescents so that they can access healthier prevention options to keep themselves healthy. We need to redouble our support to organisations representing these communities so they can create safe spaces where our brothers and our sisters and children can feel comfortable seeking care and support. Today, 98 percent of them who know their status are on treatment and today 96 percent are virally suppressed so that they cannot transmit the virus, we are almost there,” he said.
“Success does not just mean identifying those who are positive and keeping them alive and healthy through treatment. Success must include doubling down on prevention and averting new infections altogether and today, the incidents of new infections remain unacceptably high and they are not evenly distributed across society, but are disproportionately concentrated among babies and toddlers, adolescents, and young women and other often-stigmatized communities. It is among and in partnership with these communities that we must redouble our prevention efforts. This World AIDS Days serves as a call to action to enable and support communities and their leadership roles”.
Meanwhile, National AIDS Council (NAC) Director General Lloyd Mulenga said more needed to be done around the stigma for various populations which were highly infected by HIV.
“Today as we commemorate this day as the National Aids Council, we would like to remind you of our role and also our commitment to making sure that all the sectors that have a role to play in prevention of HIV and caring for those that are infected and those that may have complications arising from the infections, we are committed to doing that. As we move forward, we need to start to move differently. Our greatest challenge we have is how do we sustain this good HIV response which has been there in the country? And we need to think of different mindsets. As we move on, we need to do more to prevent infections, especially young people who are largely affected but we also need to do more around the stigma for various populations which are highly infected by HIV,” said Mulenga.
