Nam’s HIV-AIDS work recognised

By: CATHERINE SASMAN

NAMIBIA’S progress made in the fight against HIV-AIDS has received glowing praise internationally for having reached universal access to treatment, care and support alongside other African states like Botswana and Rwanda.

Internationally, good progress has been made during the past 10 years.
The HI virus was isolated 25 years ago and the first AIDS case in Namibia was diagnosed in 1986.
Reporting back on the high-level meeting of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly in New York in June, Minister of Health and Social Services Richard Kamwi said the country also received acknowledgement for putting significant resources into the fight against HIV-AIDS, complemented by the Global Fund and Pepfar.
Kamwi said 50 per cent of the funding for HIV-AIDS programmes comes from the national coffers.
He expressed concern over a possible decrease in donor support due to Namibia’s classification as a middle-income country despite having the highest income inequality in the world, with a Gini co-efficient which now stands at 0,743.
Namibia’s report to the UN shows that it has scaled up its HIV-AIDS services across the country with anti-retroviral treatment now offered at 181 decentralised sites reaching 75 000 people.
Between 2003 and March 2010, coverage has gone up from two per cent to over 90 per cent. More than 95 per cent of children and 88 per cent of adults with the disease are covered, exceeding Namibia’s 2010 universal access targets.
Deaths due to AIDS in southern Africa have declined dramatically, and numbers of HIV infection have dropped by 25 per cent in the nine most affected countries.
On July 5, Cabinet endorsed the UN Security Council resolution on HIV-AIDS and global security.
Cabinet has also approved a framework that provides a road map for the implementation of activities during 2011 to 2016.
Kamwi made an appeal to all ministries and other stakeholders to make budgetary provision for the forthcoming implementation year of the strategic framework.

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