UNAIDS said it welcomes South Africa’s plans to put an additional 1.1m people with HIV on life-saving treatment by the end of 2025 as a significant step towards ending Aids as a public health threat by 2030.
At Tuesday’s launch of the Close The Gap campaign in Soweto hosted by Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi, UNAIDS called the efforts inspiring.
The objective is to close the gap by putting additional 1.1m people have HIV but are not on treatment by the end of December 2025.
Launched in collaboration with the South African National Aids Council (SANAC) and other stakeholders, it is part of ongoing interventions to enhance an uptake of life-saving HIV treatment to ensure 95% of people diagnosed with HIV receive and adhere to antiretroviral therapy (ART) to achieve viral suppression.
Motsoaledi, who was joined by Deputy Minister of Health Dr Joe Phaahla, among others, made a commitment on behalf of their organisations to support the efforts to reach this ambitious target. The campaign is in line with the South African National Strategic Plan for HIV, TB and STIs (NSP) for 2023-2028 and the UNAIDS 95- 95-95 targets to end the Aids epidemic by 2030.
“This plan protects the human rights of people with HIV, offering them hope and an opportunity to live healthy lives by getting them on to life-saving medication,” said UNAIDS regional director for East and Southern Africa Anne Githuku-Shongwe.
“UNAIDS will continue its strong partnership with the government of South Africa to ensure everyone affected by HIV is protected through proven scientific and evidence-based interventions.”
ReliefWeb reports that while South Africa has the highest number of people with HIV in the world, it has already made enormous progress in expanding the number of patients accessing treatment, resulting in a 66% decrease in Aids-related deaths since 2010. New infections have also fallen by 58%.
Domestic resources account for around 74% of the country’s HIV response, however, many services still rely on funding from the US government which accounts for around 17% of the country’s financing for the Aids response.
More than 800 young women and adolescent girls aged 15-24 become infected with HIV every week in the country, and UNAIDS said it was working closely with the government and other partners to ensure the continuity of HIV services.
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