AIDS policy to be tabled soon

CABINET has given the go-ahead to Health Minister Dr Richard Kamwi to table a long-awaited national policy on HIV-AIDS in the National Assembly.

Among others, the policy aims to eliminate the discrimination surrounding HIV-AIDS and to have it declared a “notifiable disease”. The drafting of the policy and consultations with key people in the health sector took 18 months.”The draft policy addresses an enabling environment; prevention; treatment, care and support; impact mitigation; responding to HIV-AIDS in the workplace; institutional framework for policy implementation; as well as monitoring, evaluation, surveillance and research,” Cabinet announced on Thursday.It was compiled by the AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) and discussed at a series of workshops with stakeholders from the legal, social and community sectors.It will be the country’s first national AIDS policy.The 30-page draft policy deals with prevention and the treatment, care and support of people living with HIV-AIDS, creating an enabling environment, impact mitigation, managing and monitoring the disease.The policy, first mooted in 1999, is aimed at eliminating the stigma attached to the disease.In terms of the policy, close relatives will be informed that their next of kin is carrying the deadly virus.It also aims to eliminate discrimination and to make it easier for affected and infected people to get psychological support.The policy also seeks to declare HIV-AIDS a “notifiable disease”.This means health workers will be required, after thoroughly counselling a patient, to inform those closest to the patient about his or her HIV-AIDS status.HIV-AIDS will fall into the same category as tuberculosis, syphilis and gonorrhoea.Namibia has one of the worst rates of HIV-AIDS infection in the world.Largely because of the pandemic, life expectancy for women dropped from 62,8 years and 59,1 years for men in 1991 to 50 years for women and 48,8 years for men in 2001.The drafting of the policy and consultations with key people in the health sector took 18 months.”The draft policy addresses an enabling environment; prevention; treatment, care and support; impact mitigation; responding to HIV-AIDS in the workplace; institutional framework for policy implementation; as well as monitoring, evaluation, surveillance and research,” Cabinet announced on Thursday.It was compiled by the AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) and discussed at a series of workshops with stakeholders from the legal, social and community sectors.It will be the country’s first national AIDS policy.The 30-page draft policy deals with prevention and the treatment, care and support of people living with HIV-AIDS, creating an enabling environment, impact mitigation, managing and monitoring the disease.The policy, first mooted in 1999, is aimed at eliminating the stigma attached to the disease.In terms of the policy, close relatives will be informed that their next of kin is carrying the deadly virus.It also aims to eliminate discrimination and to make it easier for affected and infected people to get psychological support.The policy also seeks to declare HIV-AIDS a “notifiable disease”.This means health workers will be required, after thoroughly counselling a patient, to inform those closest to the patient about his or her HIV-AIDS status.HIV-AIDS will fall into the same category as tuberculosis, syphilis and gonorrhoea.Namibia has one of the worst rates of HIV-AIDS infection in the world.Largely because of the pandemic, life expectancy for women dropped from 62,8 years and 59,1 years for men in 1991 to 50 years for women and 48,8 years for men in 2001.