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58 percent of HIV-infected population on Anti-Retroviral Therapy – UNAIDS Rep.
Guyana has achieved significant gains in its Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) response over the past decade. This is according to UNAIDS Representative to Guyana and Suriname, Dr. Martin Ouditt.
UNAIDS Representative, Dr. Martin Ouditt
Based on UNAIDS estimates, in 2015 about three out of every five persons living with HIV were receiving Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART), representing 58 per cent of the HIV population. This translated to a previous state of affairs, whereby approximately one in five persons or 22 per cent were able to access ART 10 years ago.
Dr. Ouditt underscored that Guyana is on track to be certified as having eliminated HIV transmission from mothers to children in the near future.
At a United Nations high-level meeting planned for June, United Nations member states, Guyana being no exception, are expected to adopt a political declaration on ending the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to scale up the pace of the progress and reach a set of time-bound targets.
The targets are expected to be geared at ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030, which will require countries to take a fast-track approach during the next five years.
According to him, by increasing testing, early treatment and the proportion of people living with HIV who have undetectable viral loads, the UNAIDS fast-track approach aims to achieve at least three ambitious targets by 2020. These, according to Dr. Ouditt, include: fewer than 500,000 people newly infected with HIV, fewer than 500,000 people dying from AIDS-related illnesses and eliminating HIV-related discrimination.
Dr. Ouditt has made it clear too that the world can in fact end AIDS as a public health threat. This is in light of the fact, he observed, that in 2015 the world was able to deliver on the AIDS targets of the Millennium Development Goal Six, which is aimed at halting and reversing the AIDS epidemic.
“This achievement marks the first time a global health target has been met and exceeded,” Ouditt outlined, even as he pointed out that “by-mid-2015, nearly 16 million people were accessing anti-retroviral therapy – double the number just five years earlier.”
He, moreover, noted that ending AIDS by 2030 is an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals which United Nations member states adopted unanimously in 2015.
The lessons learned in responding to HIV, according to Dr. Ouditt, will play an instrumental role in achieving Sustainable Development Goal Three that addresses good health and well being. Also of relevance, he highlighted, are the goals on gender equality and women’s empowerment, reduced inequalities, global partnerships and just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
“The world can leave no one behind. The people most severely affected by the AIDS epidemic, including young women and adolescent girls, children, migrants and key populations, including gay men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who use drugs, transgender people and prisoners, must have access to high-quality HIV and health services free from stigma and discrimination.”
The UN high-level meeting is slated for June 6 – 10, 2016 at the UN headquarters in New York. Dr. Ouditt said that in Guyana, communities of people living with HIV and key populations most affected by HIV, civil society, the private sector, governments and regional bodies, have offered inputs on priorities for the future of the AIDS response. The Guyana delegation to the meeting will be headed by Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton.
And according to Dr. Ouditt, “by participating in the high level meeting to end AIDS, Guyana is taking part in a unique moment in history…focus must remain strong to ensure that gains of the national AIDS response are leveraged rather than lost during this period of transition and hope.”
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