Lobatse — Botswana is close to attaining elimination of the transmission of HIV from mother to child, says acting national coordinator of National AIDS and Health Promotion Agency (NAHPA), Mr Robert Selato.

Speaking during the International AIDS Candle Light Memorial event in Lobatse recently, Mr Selato said the country had achieved over 95 per cent coverage of pregnant women on anti-retroviral medication.

He said the high coverage had resulted in a very low mother-to-child transmission rate of less than two percent.

'Less than two percent of babies who were born to HIV positive mothers contracted the virus from their mothers. So we have done very well. This means that we are approaching the elimination of mother-to-child transmission. That is a success story," he noted.

Selato先生补充道that successful attainment of the 90-90-90 UNAIDS targets was another achievement in the fight against the spread of HIV. He said the country has surpassed the 90-90-90 targets.

The first target pronounces that 90 per cent of people in the population who are HIV positive should have been tested and be aware of their HIV positive status.

Mr Selato said Botswana had reached 92 per cent concerning this target.

The second target pronounces that 90 per cent of the HIV positive people who know their status should be on treatment. Regarding this, Mr Selato said in Botswana, 95 per cent of HIV positive people were on treatment.

The third target pronounce that 90 per cent of those on treatment should be virally suppressed.

He said in Botswana, 98 per cent are virally suppressed, which was an accomplishment.

He said according to the UNAIDS report of the year 2020, there were approximately 324 000 people living with HIV in Botswana.

He said the report further indicated that between 2010 and 2020, new HIV infections went down by 37 per cent in Botswana while AIDS related deaths decreased by 22 per cent.

"Increased access to medication has averted more than 12 000 deaths since 2010. But we still need to do more because we have not yet reached epidemic control. For us to attain epidemic control, we need to have decreased our new infections by more than 75 per cent," he said.

He said epidemic control was a state where the annual new infections were less than annual HIV related deaths.

Mr Selato however said, despite these achievements in addressing the virus, Botswana still remained one of the hardest hit countries by HIV in the world, and has the third highest HIV prevalence in sub-Saharan African.

"This shows that we are far from winning the battle. We recognise the urgent need to intensify our HIV control measures, especially among the highly affected groups. That include children, adult males, and adolescent and young people," he said.

He said HIV prevalence remained high among the 45-49, while new infections were high among the 25-29 age bracket.

He said adolescent girls and young women were among the highest hit by new infections.

Source : BOPA