Botswana to end AIDS in 2030 - Masisi
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Friday December 6, 2019 14:31
Speaking at the recent commemoration of World AIDS Day in Maun, Masisi said his administration is committed to strengthening the response to be more community-led and rights-based so that ‘no one is left behind’ in the process.
He also explained that the focus on the HIV prevention roadmap building up to 2020 was on HIV primary prevention, the promotion as well as the provision of effective tools to prevent HIV infections.
“In order to achieve these targets, the emphasis is to empower communities as change agents so that they can play a crucial role in HIV treatment and care.
It is in this regard that the key principles to attain the 2020 targets should be based on community led interventions through their engagement at all levels,” he said.
He also stated that a study conducted by the Botswana Harvard Institute (BHI), HIV combination prevention programme had shown to provide high impact benefits that greatly reduce new infections and HIV mortality.
He therefore announced that the country was committed to offering a variety of services to its citizens in line with the 2020 UNAIDS HIV prevention roadmap.
Masisi also indicated that Botswana had taken a decision to offer anti-retroviral therapy to all including non-citizens for free.
He explained that the results of BHI emphasised the need to extend HIV services to non-Batswana as they directly interact with locals and could fuel HIV infections if not tested and treated, as fewer non-citizens would know their HIV status resulting from a lack of access to services.
“The current National Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS, which was launched in June this year, provides detailed guidance on the implementation of the five prevention pillars of HIV prevention, covering the following areas; comprehensive condom programming; pre-exposure prophylaxis, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), key populations and voluntary male medical circumcision,” he said.
However, he pointed out that despite all these efforts, they were still challenged to eliminate the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV. He pointed out that factors delaying them from reaching universal coverage, especially amongst key populations such as sex workers, were challenges they face in accessing health care and treatment due to stigma and discrimination from health care providers.
He therefore pointed out that attention was being paid to correct those inherent challenges through the training of health care providers, the review of policies and various pieces of legislation, as well as public education.