Botswana stuns the world with HIV strategy

Botswanas HIV/AIDS strategy has stunned world experts after it emerged the best country in treatment and containment of the virus that causes AIDS. A new report published in The Lancet HIV says Botswana is by far exceeding goals for addressing the HIV crisis, well ahead of a deadline set by the United Nations.

This comes a few weeks after the country was ranked the friendliest country to people living with HIV/AIDS, by a March 1 survey published by Afrobarometer, a Pan-African non-partisan research network, which ranked Botswana first among 33 countries surveyed. In the most recent report, Botswana topped the world, beating even the most developed countries. The report shows that Botswana, a middle income status country with HIV infection rates of up to 25 percent of the adult population, has moved ahead of other countries — both Western nations and the economically disadvantaged — in tackling the AIDS epidemic.

The United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS has called on countries to strive to ensure that 90 percent of their citizens know their HIV status and that 90 percent are treated with ant-retroviral therapy to achieve 90 percent viral suppression. However the report says Botswana is exceeding those goals, well ahead of a 2020 deadline.

Editor's Comment
Batswana need to do better to stop FMD

It is a clear signal that the government’s purse is empty and that our own behaviour has left veterinary officials fighting with one hand tied behind their backs. We have been here before. During COVID-19, many of us thought we knew better. We ignored simple rules, we carried on as if the danger was someone else’s problem, and the virus took lives and left our economy on its knees. We are still broke from that experience. Yet now, with FMD...

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