Youth, men still reluctant to test for HIV

Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Wednesday May 27, 2015 15:54

Gang said this at the Mayor’s 90-90-90-test drive campaign held at the Gaborone bus rank on Saturday. The campaign, which was enunciated at the UNAIDS International AIDS conference held in Melbourne, Australia late last year, follows through key steps considered critical to better health for HIV positive people, and to limiting new infections.

The philosophy is that 90 percent of people must get tested, 90 percent HIV positive people should be on treatment and 90 percent of people on treatment should have suppressed viral loads.

Gang said Botswana had been a great example by giving people free HIV treatment and establishing Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMCT) to promote zero new infections, zero transmissions and zero HIV related deaths.

“It has also come up with community awareness-raising programmes about HIV but its efforts run futile as there is still a lot of misunderstanding and stigma in society, even among the well educated. The youth and men are also left behind more especially when it comes to testing. This indicates we need to expand these awareness programmes,” he said. Gang said people did not take preventative methods more especially the youth who did not care to use condoms or know their HIV status. “One out of two HIV positive people do not know their status and this puts not only them but also their loved ones and the nation at large at risk of the disease. We know that around the world, cities are the powerhouses. They attract a lot of people more especially the young people who come to the cities to seek greener pastures. As we know, youth are at an exploring age where they are eager to explore the world and sex. They need to be educated and encouraged to prevent themselves as they are bearing a lot of risk,” he said.

Gang applauded the Botswana government for its solid attempt to fight HIV, by giving its citizens free ARVs and enrolling infected mothers onto the PMCT programme, which helped to reduce transmission from mother to child by more than 80 percent. He also said that reducing new infections and ensuring that those already infected had access to treatment as required by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, would require all members of society to work together.