Dar es Salaam residents mark World AIDS Day yesterday by queuing for voluntary HIV/AIDS testing at Mnazi Mmoja grounds. (Photo: Selemani Mpochi)Vice President Dr Gharib Bilal has said the government would intensify efforts in the fight against HIV/AIDS by seeking cooperation with more stakeholders.
He was speaking in Morogoro yesterday during activities to mark the World Aids Day at the national level.
He said the need to keep the various parties engaged in the campaign against the virus remained crucial to recording more successes.
Dr Bilal observed however that, despite the majority of the people having been sensitised about the scourge, many still practise unsafe sex, exposing themselves to unnecessary risks.
He hailed the positive trend noted in Dar es Salaam region in voluntary testing and counselling, whereby during the period of 2009/2010 more than 200,000 people turned up for tests, the majority being women.
Meanwhile the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tanzania Alberic Kacou said in Tanzania, the HIV prevalence rates continue to go down, but was more than 5 times higher among young women than young men.
Speaking at the climax of the World AIDS Day here, he said the HIV overall prevalence rates have come down, albeit gradually from 7% in 2004 to 5.7 in 2008.
However, women were still at a disproportionately higher risk of HIV infection due to violence against them and gender inequality, embedded in cultural, social, economic and political structures.
He said another major challenge to the society was that of promoting human rights not only for women and girls but for all people living with HIV/Aids.
He said this was especially critical for women, who due to their lower social status were the prime candidates for human rights abuses which in turn, increased the risk of them getting infected.
Kacou said that efforts must be directed towards creating an enabling environment to empower women.
He said societies must reinforce the translation of political commitments into increased resources and scaled up action.
He said societies must champion the creation of strategic information on women and girls in context of planning and decision making.
The Coordinator said that the strategy to curb the HIV and AIDS epidemic is inextricably linked to providing human rights protection to all people living with HIV/Aids.
He said although formally, people have access to treatment, discrimination and stigmatisation are forcing them into the darkness to deal with their illness alone.
He said, essentially the fear of being an outcast was stopping people from getting tested and seeking treatments.
The situation is preventing them from living openly, seeking the prevention of mother to child transmission, adopting consistent and correct use of condoms, reducing multiple and concurrent partnerships, male circumcision, testing and seeking counselling.
Kacou said over 60% of Tanzanians aged between 15-49 years do not yet know their HIV status or how they can protect themselves or manage the disease if they are infected.
He called on people who have yet to test to do so, to help the government and stakeholders scale up the campaign against the disease.
By: the guardian (ippmedia)
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