On World Aids Day, the international community will be focusing on how to end the HIV/Aids epidemic by 2030.
Experts believe it can be done by overcoming the barriers to HIV care and treatment by focusing on priority populations and supporting them through lifelong treatment.
The focus must be on the unique needs of vulnerable populations, including teenage girls, who are the most affected.
Top African HIV experts and BroadReach Health Development’s acting district director of Gert Sibande believe people should not just focus on the general HIV numbers.
“We must focus on the specific communities that have the highest HIV prevalence. We must determine what we can do for them in a human-centric, caring way to address their specific health needs, so that they can reach viral suppression. This is the key to stopping further transmission of HIV in society by 2030,” said panelist Thanduxolo Doro, People Living with HIV Civil Society leader and project management specialist for USAID South Africa.
“Today, the face of HIV in Africa is a young girl with a baby on her back, who, when faced with the difficult choice of self-care versus child-care, will always sacrifice her own health for her child.”
Dr Veni Naidu, HIV Community Services lead with BroadReach Health Development, who oversees the DREAMS programme for young women, said adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately vulnerable to HIV infection due to their socioeconomic circumstances.
DREAMS is a USAID initiative across Africa to support and mentor at-risk adolescent girls and young women.
Girls are at greater HIV risk if they engage in sex at a very young age, when they don’t have the power to negotiate condom use, when they have multiple sexual partners, if they are repressed by patriarchal culture and gender-based violence (GBV) and if they have transactional relationships with sexual partners.
“Orphanhood is also a risk factor, because of a lack of guidance and higher risk of GBV. Girls are often reluctant to get tested or treated for HIV, as they fear judgment from their parents, caregivers, peers and health workers,” said Naidu.
Annah Sango, advocacy officer with Global Network of People Living with HIV in Zimbabwe, said it is very important to provide a choice to young women so that they can find the preventions or treatments that will work best for their personal situations.
This includes pills, injections, vaginal rings, or access to male and female condoms.
“Choice means agency, which means more protection. We need to solve issues of accessibility, availability, affordability, convenience, and community buy-in around HIV prevention and care for our most vulnerable populations.”
Another and often overlooked and blamed group is adult men, for who it was often challenging or embarrassing to come to clinics for HIV testing, treatment, and care. In South Africa, adult men make up 37% of adults living with HIV.
Often breadwinners who cannot afford to spend the day in a clinic, men form part of the statistic that one in five Ugandans is HIV-positive without knowing it.
According to a UNAIDS report, 59% of people living with HIV have reached viral suppression, while South Africa has reached 89%, according to Health Minister Joe Phaahla.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
