World AIDS Day: Africa commits to scaling up HIV response

African health officials have committed to scaling up healthcare interventions aimed at curbing new HIV infections during World AIDS Day.

The day was marked under the global theme “Take the rights path: My health, my right!” underscoring the link between human rights and healthcare access.

Rwanda’s Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said while the country has made good progress in diminishing the impact of HIV, reducing new infections by 70 percent and AIDS-related deaths by 60 percent since 2010, AIDS remains a serious health challenge.

“There are almost 10 new HIV infections in Rwanda every day. It is not a small number. And mostly they are young people 18 to 20 years old. This means we have a lot of work to do,” said Nsanzimana on Sunday.

“In the next months, we should be focused on areas where we can make a big impact. Number one is to make sure young people are well-informed, and communication is key,” he said.

In Kenya, World AIDS Day was marked at Nyayo National Stadium with a call to action and a renewed commitment to eliminating HIV as a public health threat.

Cabinet Secretary for Health Deborah M. Barasa in a statement highlighted the crucial role of men and boys in the fight against HIV, urging them to challenge stigma, promote health-seeking behaviors and lead community efforts.

“The fight against HIV is a collective effort, and men and boys must be champions for change,” she said.

Kenya has made significant progress in its HIV response, with 98 percent of adults living with HIV receiving treatment by the end of 2023 and 97 percent achieving viral suppression, according to official data.

New HIV infections have dropped by 83 percent over the past decade, while AIDS-related deaths have decreased by 64 percent.

HIV prevalence in Kenya stands at 3.3 percent.

Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional director for Africa, said that HIV is a complex health challenge, inseparable from social factors such as poverty and gender inequality and complicated by stigma and discrimination.

Protecting human rights is key to a chieving universal HIV care, she added.

According to the WHO, equal access to prevention tools and education are key to stopping new infections while stigma and discrimination undermine the fight against AIDS.

Seven African nations have met the UNAIDS HIV 95-95-95 targets, a global benchmark to end HIV as a public health threat by 2030.

The targets seek to ensure that 95 percent of HIV-positive people know their HIV status, 95 percent of people who know their HIV-positive status are on antiretroviral therapy and 95 percent of people on antiretroviral therapy maintain an undetectable viral load to reduce onward transmission.

The small southern African nation of Eswatini, once facing one of the world’s worst HIV epidemics, is among the countries which have achieved the global HIV target.

Eswatini Prime Minister Russell Dlamini said the kingdom will endeavour to put human rights first in the fight against HIV/AIDS while sustaining the gains.

“I wish to reaffirm that Eswatini shall continue to engage with this year's theme and ensure that no one is left behind in accessing HIV prevention services, treatment, care and support services," he said, speaking in Mahlangatja in Manzini district, where the national commemoration took place.

The Africa region has achieved an overall rating of 90-82-76, according to the WHO.

In Uganda, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng raised concerns about the high number of new HIV infections registered in the country annually, which may hinder Uganda’s goal to end AIDS by 2030.

“New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have been reduced. However, they are not being reduced fast enough to enable us to reach the targets we expected to get in 2025, and that also means that the country is at risk of not achieving the goal of ending AIDS by 2030,” she said during a World AIDS Day commemoration in Buyende District in eastern Uganda.

She also said the HIV response is heavily donor-funded, but with shifting priorities, there has been a reduction in funding.

The funding contributions for the response from the country’s main donor, the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), declined from $426 million in the 2022/2023 financial year to $388 million in the 2023/2024 financial year after Uganda enacted the Anti-Homosexuality law in May 2023.