Stakeholders such as the National Aids Coordinating Agency (NACA), The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The African Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Programme (ACHAP) and Non-governmental Organisations should be commended for contributing to this achievement. They have played a major role, not only in partly financing the procurement of the ARVs, but also in ensuring that they reach their intended beneficiaries even in the most remote areas of this country. These stakeholders played a critical role in ensuring that education reaches the people and that there are some results in the form of behavioural change. Indeed, we can see some signs of behavioural change as people look at things differently as compared to a decade ago.
Decades after it was first discovered, there is still no cure for AIDS and all stakeholders, especially individuals, should take responsibility for their health. It starts with abstinence, protected sex, and sticking to one partner. This is the chorus that was first sung in the late 90s, at the height of the AIDS crisis, and should continue to ring in everybody’s ears until we have zero infections. However, there is an emerging and disturbing trend among young people in their early 20s who seem so reckless about their bodies and health. This is despite that among them are orphaned children, or they know a cousin who grew up without parents who had died of AIDS.
