Fight against HIV/AIDS not over – PEPFAR

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) says the fight against HIV/AIDS is not over, calling for a sustained global response against the disease.

Its Global Aids Coordinator and Senior Bureau Official for Global Health Security and Diplomacy, Amb. John Nkengasong, said this during a virtual news briefing on Thursday.

The briefing was centred on “The Future Role of The United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in Africa.”

Nkengasong acknowledged that efforts to control HIV/AIDS had recorded tremendous success with lifesaving impacts across communities.

He, however, cautioned that HIV/AIDS should not be seen or termed a disease of the past.

“It’s a disease of the present. And we should be very careful not to be vulnerable to our success.

“We’ve done tremendous labour in controlling HIV. The fight is not over.

“Just last year alone in Botswana, the country recorded 4,300 new cases of infection, mainly among young people.

“I don’t think in this country we recorded 4,000 cases of mpox or any other emerging disease. So I think HIV is still there.

“HIV is still killing people. We know that on UNAIDS data. Last year alone, there were 650,000 people in the world that died of HIV/AIDS, and 60 per cent of those were in Africa.

“And I don’t know that mpox has killed, over the course of one year, 250,000 people. That would be 60 per cent of the deaths. So HIV is still there,” he said.

Nkengasong, a Virologist noted that HIV was a hidden pandemic that doesn’t disrupt, warning that it spreads silently in communities.

“So, because of that, it’s not so visible. And because of the remarkable success that we’ve achieved over the past two decades, we do not go to the clinics and see the ugly face of HIV all over.

“So, because of that, it’s fair to say that it’s not as visible in the political arena of many countries as it was before.

“And that’s one of the reasons that I’m leading a tour of the continent to meet with the highest leadership of each country to say, look, we’ve made progress, but the fight against HIV/AIDS is not over.

“We need to continue to commit our own resources to the fight as we commit the U.S. resources to it.

“We need to shape our programmes in a way that they can respond to the needs of today and fill the inequity gap that exists in young children, adolescent girls, and young women, and key populations,” he said.

Nkengasong stressed the need to sustain the response against HIV to prevent a resurgence of the disease.

He disclosed that his top priority was to continue to work with the U.S. Congress to get a five-year reauthorisation for the PEPFAR programme.

“So I think my top priority is to work with everyone, mainly Congress, to get a clean five-year reauthorisation.

“That way, it can enable us to have a sustained conversation with the partner countries and say, look, let’s approach our journey to 2030 in the spirit of joint responsibility and joint accountability.

“The U.S. government is not transactional in the fight against HIV. We have not. We are committed and proud partners.

“We’ve done that successfully and impactfully for the last 21 years, and we are not going to give up.

“The U.S. has been in the business of foreign assistance since 1961 under President Kennedy, and I don’t think that foreign assistance, including foreign assistance for her programme, is going to be cut up.

“How prepared it looks post-2030 will depend on our success and will depend on several other determinants, which I cannot predict what will happen in 2030 where I’m sitting now,” Nkengasong said.

Highlighting PEPFAR’s success, Nkengasong said PEPFAR’s investments had strengthened the systems that drive effective, efficient, and sustainable health care.

According to him, PEPFAR has assisted in training 340,000 healthcare workers to deliver and improve HIV care and other health services, creating a lasting health system for partner countries to confront other current and future health challenges.

‘A lot of the COVID-19 successes that we saw in Africa were the backbone of what PEPFAR has done.

“So we are very proud partners in strengthening health systems on the continent.

“We would never have achieved the goals of saving 25 million lives, preventing 5.5 million children born free of HIV without a strong system and capacity development on the continent,” he said.

Nkengasong said PEPFAR had invested over $110 billion in Africa in the last 21 years while restating its continued commitment to achieving epidemic control among children, adolescent girls, young women, and men.

He said PEPFAR would enhance political awareness, sustain funding, adapt its programmes and strengthen health systems against HIV/AIDS in Africa.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that PEPFAR is a United States government initiative to address the global HIV/AIDS epidemic and help save the lives of those suffering from the disease.

The U.S. government investment through PEPFAR is the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in history.

The programme has saved over 25 million lives, prevented millions of HIV infections, and accelerated progress toward controlling the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in more than 50 countries.

PEPFAR, first created in 2003 by President George Bush, has been reauthorised three times.

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Africa bears the heaviest burden of HIV/AIDS globally.

UNAIDS said that 4000 adolescent girls and young women acquired HIV every single week, and 3,100 of those infected are from Africa.