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Ministry of Health to commemorate World AIDS Day in the Khomas Region

Ministry of Health to commemorate World AIDS Day in the Khomas Region

The Ministry of Health and Social Service (MoHSS) will join the rest of the world in the commemoration of the 2019 World AIDS Day (WAD) which routinely takes place on 1 December.

This years’ commemoration will be hosted by the Khomas region and will take place on 2 December with support from civil society and development partners.

The Ministry in a statement said that this year’s commemoration of World AIDS Day will be conducted under the global theme, ‘Communities make the difference’, under the UNAIDS and aligned with the national sub-theme, ‘accelerating efforts towards epidemic control and ending AIDS in Namibia by 2030′.

“The theme is backed by the UNAIDS emphasising that the strong advocacy role played by communities is needed more than ever to ensure the uptake of HIV prevention services which is essential in achieving the 90-90-90 targets,” added the Ministry.

The theme is said to also empower young people to make informed choices about HIV prevention, so that they can protect themselves and their loved ones.

“The 2019 WAD commemoration will be conducted as a build up activity to the first ever Khomas Regional AIDS conference (KRAC) that is scheduled to take place from 2 to 4 December,” they said.

The Namibia Population Based HIV Impact Assessment (NAMPHIA) which was a cross sectional household based survey was conducted between June and December 2017 to assess the progress of Namibia’s national HIV response.

he survey reported a national HIV prevalence of 12.6% among adults aged 15-64 years in 2017, while Khomas Region’s HIV prevalence stood at 8.3%.

Namibia has made significant strides in responding the HIV epidemic with 86% of people HIV positive knowing their HIV status, 96% of the known HIV positive are on treatment and 91% of those on treatment are virally suppressed.

Despite the progress a high level of pretreatment HIV drug resistance has been observed promoting the review of the first line ART to include integrase inhibitors.


 

About The Author

Mandisa Rasmeni

Mandisa Rasmeni has worked as reporter at the Economist for the past five years, first on the entertainment beat but now focussing more on community, social and health reporting. She is a born writer and she believes education is the greatest equalizer. She received her degree in Journalism at the Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST) in June 2021. . She is the epitome of perseverance, having started as the newspaper's receptionist in 2013.