Minister of health and social services Kalumbi Shangula says if the progression of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) infection in Namibia continues at its current rate, ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is achievable.
The minister yesterday said HIV-AIDS-related deaths in Namibia have decreased dramatically.
“People on antiretroviral treatment live normal lives; they go to work. You must have seen in the past almost every weekend there were funerals.
“You don’t see that any more. We have definitely made very big progress,” the minister said.
“If the progression is going at the current rate, it could be true,” he said.
Shangula said Namibia has made strides in controlling AIDS, with more than 90% of those on antiretroviral treatment showing a suppressed viral load.
This means they are unable to transmit the infection to another person.
“The basic reproductive ratio of AIDS will be less than one. Now if you get a situation where there is no source of infection, it means another person will not be infected. Eventually, the infection dies out, which is the basic principle of epidemiology,” the minister said.
He said this would mean even in Namibia there would be no new infection due to virally suppressed individuals not being able to transmit the infection to another person.
Next Monday, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV-AIDS (UNAIDS) will launch a new report, ‘The Urgency of Now: AIDS at a Crossroads’, ahead of the 25th International AIDS Conference in Germany.
UNAIDS has announced that the report will demonstrate that ending AIDS as a public health threat is achievable by 2030, but that success is being threatened by pushes to reduce funding and restrict human rights.
“The HIV response is at a crossroads: Success or failure will be determined by which path leaders take,” UNAIDS has said.
“Taking the wrong path by limiting resourcing or clamping down on human rights would lead the pandemic to continue to grow, costing millions more lives and undermining global health security,” the programme has warned.
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