How Tanzania can close gaps in fight against HIV

The chief executive officer of the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation, Dr Ellen Senkoro, speaks at a past event. PHOTO| FILE 

In Summary

Today is World Aids Day, a global event themed ‘Know your status’. Countries across the world have expressed their determination to end the spread of HIV through this campaign. UNAids seeks to achieve 90 per cent of all HIV positive individuals knowing their status, 90 per cent of those diagnosed with the virus being put on ARVs and 90 per cent of them having viral suppression. It’s dubbed: 90-90-90 targets, to be achieved by 2020.
With only a year to the deadline, Tanzania has so far achieved by 52.2 per cent on the first 90, which rhymes with this year’s World Aids Day theme.
How can the country bridge the remaining gap? To answer this question, The Citizen’s Health reporter Syriacus Buguzi spoke to the chief executive officer of the Benjamin Mkapa Foundation (BMF), Dr Ellen Senkoro. Excerpts:

Question: Dr Senkoro, your organisation, BMF, has been involved in HIV/Aids interventions at