Aids Day marked with voluntary testing call

KATARE MBASHIRU

TANZANIANS yesterday joined the rest of the world to commemorate the World Aids Day, with people urged to undertake voluntary testing to avert further spreading of the deadly disease.

The Tanzania Association of Employers (ATE) asked all employers in the country to abide by the HIV/AIDS policy as well as providing education to employees.

“It should be well known that people spends more time at work than anywhere, therefore if enough education is not provided several issues that subject them to risk are likely to occur,’’ said ATE’s HIV/AIDS coordinator, Ms Tumaini Kiyola.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it encourages self-testing to improve access to and uptake of HIV/ AIDS diagnosis.

The WHO statement said if well utilised HIV/AIDS selftesting can open the door for people to know their HIV status and find out how to get treatment and access prevention services. “HIV/Aids self-testing means people can use oral fluid or blood- finger-pricks to discover their status in a private and convenient setting.

Results are ready within 20 minutes or less,” WHO Director-General, Dr Margaret Chan, was quoted by the statement as saying. After self-testing people with positive results are advised to seek confirmatory tests at health clinics, WHO recommends they receive information and links to counselling as well as rapid referral to prevention, treatment and care services.

As the nation marks the World AIDS Day today, there are almost 2 million new HIV infections worldwide every year and 1 million people die from the disease annually. WHO officials estimate about 40 per cent of those with HIV (14 million people) are unaware that they are infected.

Tanzania has about 1.4 million people living with HIV/ AIDS. However, only 830,000 of these are on ARVs. About 36 million people around the world are currently infected with HIV.

According to the Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu,Tanzania needs, US Dollars 382 million (about 830bn/-) until December, 2017 to fund its ambitious plan of putting over 1.4 million people living with HIV on life-long ARVs regardless of their CD4 count.

Yesterday, ATE as the Private Sector Focal Point on HIV Response in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Swedish Workplace HIV/AIDS Programme (SWHAP), marked the day at the Security Group Africa (SGA) Head Office in Mbezi Beach, Dar es Salaam.

In his remarks read on his behalf by Ms Kiyola, ATE Executive Director, Dr Aggrey Mlimuka, said his association was eyeing for Zero deaths as well as zero new infections.

“The main objective of the world is to eliminate the disease by 2030, but we cannot attain this achievement if people are not taking precaution measures for self testing in order to identify the status of their health,’’ he said.

Dr Mlimuka said HIV/ AIDS was still a big problem as it is in other countries in the continent and that its effects were still a thorny issue, something that affects the country’s development.

“Although the rate at which the disease has been affecting people has consistently been dwindling, there are regions like Dar es Salaam where HIV/ AIDS prevalence is still high,’’ he added.