Batswana join global search for HIV cure
Friday, April 12, 2024 | 690 Views |
In the beginning: From the original ABCs, the fight against HIV has moved through ARVs and is now evolving to the search for a cure
After making international headlines for becoming only the second country in the world to achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, Botswana could be forgiven for resting on her laurels for a little bit.
After all, achieving the targets is a milestone victory in the four-decade long fight against HIV/AIDS, a battle that has cost thousands of lives and billions of Pula. Announced nearly a decade ago as a way of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, the United Nation’s 95-95-95 targets challenge all nations to ensure that by 2025, 95% of all people living with HIV know their status, 95% of those who are diagnosed are on ARVs, and 95% of those who are on ARVs have viral load suppression.
When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...