Press Statement - Lets Continue the Fight Against HIV and AIDS 1 December 2014 Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day. This is the time to sit back and reflect on where we are coming from and where we want to go as a country. At the turn of the century, people suffering from HIV faced a lot of discrimination. People that suffered from the disease never had hope of living normal lives. The nation was fortunate in that around the same time, there was a change of Presidency and Mwanawasa took over and immediately declared this scourge a national disaster. Since then a lot of progress has been made, from 20% prevalence we are down to less than 14% all because of proper leadership. In the past three years, however, we have seen a spike in new infections amidst a questionable supply of ARVs. The spike is due to hardships people are facing while some have relapsed due to lack of a steady supply of ARVs because of Government mismanagement of the procurement process. The past three years should have moved us from 14% downwards but it has not. Our healthcare system needs attention. Some progress has been made in building more clinics and facilities in recent times. These developments are very welcome. However, we need to make sure these are staffed properly, have the right medicines available and that they are affordable, otherwise they won’t do any good. A UPND Government under my leadership will work hard to ensure that we minimise new infections using different strategies. We will ensure that no one person who is supposed to be under treatment has recourse to take the state to task. We pledge to ensure that care services are commensurate with the minimum standards that wont compromise their human dignity. As we observe this day, let us not forget that everyone is affected by HIV and AIDS in one way or another. Let us therefore encourage more people to go for voluntary testing and counselling (VCT). Knowing your status is the first step, We should all know our status. I also want to thank every single person and organisation that works day in and day out to address the problem. I know you work under tough conditions with limited resources to reach everyone you need to. Please continue your good work. We are grateful. I thank you. Hakainde Hichilema UPND President
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 08:57:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015