Rakiya A.Muhammad
There is a growing emphasis on enhancing HIV testing and bridging inequality in treatment coverage and outcomes in the fight against the disease.
Experts stress HIV testing remains critical to achieving the 2025 HIV reduction target and the SDG-3 goal of ending the disease.
United Nations 95-95-95 targets aim for 95% of all people living with HIV to know their status,95% of all people diagnosed with HIV infection to receive sustained antiretroviral therapy and 95% of all people receiving antiretroviral treatment to have viral suppression by 2025.
“Testing and diagnostic are critical components of the United Nations 95-95-95 targets to end the HIV epidemic,” points out the World Health Organisation.
“HIV testing services and infant diagnoses support the first target of 95 per cent of people living with HIV Aids to know their status. HIV treatment monitoring supports the third target of 95% of people living with HIV to be virally suppressed.”
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) data shows globally, 38.4million people were living with HIV in 2021.
According to the WHO, the African region remains severely affected. It notes nearly 1 in every 25 adults (3.4%) live with HIV, accounting for over two-thirds of the people living with HIV worldwide.
The data also show that of all people with HIV worldwide, 85 per cent knew their status,76 percent were accessing ART, and 65% were virally suppressed.
It leaves about 5.9 million or 15% of people living with HIV globally who did not know their status in 2021, while 9.7million were not accessing therapy.
“One challenge of HIV globally is testing; getting people to test,” notes Dr Adepoju Victor Abiola while speaking at a webinar by ICFJ Pamela Howard Forum on Global Crisis Reporting.
Commenting on developments in the fight against Aids, he underscores the need to boost HIV testing among key populations.
“We have all the tools available. One tool is HIV self-testing specifically for some populations, especially men. If you go to hospitals in sub–Saharan Africa, they are largely populated by women either for ANC or one thing or the other; men rarely go to the hospital,” he points out.
“One of the things available for men to get themselves tested is the HIV self-testing, but we still find out that several countries have not yet adopted the policy. This policy on HIV self-test is still not embedded in most national policy response, and it is very critical that we adopt it.”
He observes: “If you look at SDGs, the target is to have a new infection of 500,000, but last year about 1.5 million new infections were recorded despite all the fight.”
The medical doctor decries poor awareness of the U=U (Undetectable equals transmittable) HIV campaign message, which notes that sustained adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) can help eliminate the risk of transmitting HIV.
“People take antiretroviral drugs but have never heard about U=U. They do not know that if they adhere to medication and are virally suppressed and undetectable, they won’t be able to transmit HIV to their partner or their children, whether you are a pregnant woman or a partner,” he states.
The Project Director, Global Projects, UNITAID HIV Self-Testing Africa (STAR), stresses the need to promote the U=U message described as empowering.
He also speaks about stigmatisation and discrimination. “I notice that stigma about the disease in Africa is still there, unlike in the West, where they have overcome that stigma.”
Dr Adepoju urges journalists to look beyond the medical angle of diseases and explore socio-economic and cultural issues around disease control.
“We are still struggling economy; income level also has a lot of interaction around the disease. We need to educate people more about some of these things -cultural issues around disease control linked to our progress.”
