The Country Representative of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Babatunde Ahonsi is calling for a strong collaborative effort between leadership, science and human rights in combating HIV/AIDS in Africa.
According to him, with the combination of these aspects of human life, Africa will be in the position to triumph in its fight against the deadly menace.
It is estimated by the World Health Organisation that almost 25 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Speaking to Citi News at the International Conference on AIDS and STIs, Ahonsi re-echoed the relevance of political commitment in ensuring the success of HIV control programmes in countries.
“The real linkage is that whatever we do in HIV Response must be backed by Science,in other words, knowledge and understanding of what works. Now that we are in the fourth decade of HIV response we know what works. We know that if the community is mobilized especially with people living with AIDS, it makes a difference. When the Science is deployed in the development, implementation and evaluation of programmes is where the leadership comes in. Every country that has made a difference in bringing HIV under control, one of the things you will see amongst them is high level political commitment,” he said.
Babatunde Ahonsi also commended Ghana for the giant strides made in reducing the prevalence of the disease down to 1.3%. He stated that Ghana’s epidemic level was at an acceptable of Concentrated epidemic instead of the more dangerous Generalised epidemic.
The International Conference on AIDS and STI’s in Africa discussed ways of dealing with the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
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By Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana