Chikowa Kamwatonga
The Director of HIV and AIDS Rose Nyirenda says despite progress made against commitments to the 95:95:95 global targets as guided by the 2023/2024 HIV data; Malawi needs to prioritize working on certain areas. Firstly; there is need to achieve the 95/95/95 for children and adolescents because Malawi has not yet achieved the first and last 95 for these populations. This is because of treatments which are not best and difficulties in administering ART in children which affects their viral suppression. Nyirenda said this during the Malawi Prison Steering Committee held on 15th and 16th February 2024 at Ekhaya hotel in Mangochi.
Secondly; there is also need to achieve the 95/95/95 for Key populations. For this reason; everybody in the country needs to know their HIV status, be on treatment if positive and achieve viral suppression. This demands that defaulting among the estimated 950,000 known people living with HIV and on ART in Malawi is eradicated and those lost are brought back to care. Knowing who these people are and where they are will help to understand why they defaulted for addressing through appropriate support like counselling. We need to achieve viral suppression for those on treatment in the country. This is so because treatment is a big contributor to preventing HIV transmission and consequently help Malawi achieve a decline in new infections.
Rose Nyirenda We need to sustain gains in the national HIV response
Again; focus should be on pregnant and breast feeding women because its among this population that we see new HIV infections especially during the breast feeding period. For this reason; Malawi has brought in other strategies such as integration of HIV into sexual reproductive health and maternal new born health to ensure that all women who are on high risk are accessing HIV prevention methods.
In addition; Men are a population that need more attention because of their poor health seeking behaviors. So they normally lag behind in accessing health services. For example, there are some men who don’t know their HIV positive status just like they may not be on ART. If we control high risk behaviors among men in the general population; it will easily follow for women.
Furthermore; Health System Strengthening through primary health care investments as a priority can help the country bring services closer to people including prevention interventions. People should not fail to access services like ART because of challenges like distance and related transport costs. We need to sustain the health gains hence we need to ensure that access barriers are being addressed.
Human Resource for Health is another important area of focus to support delivery of services. This includes strong laboratory system to continue monitoring people living with HIV for viral load, availability of ART and strengthen data system. Its data that tell us how the program is performing and where problems exist for targeting. We need adequate health workers in all these areas.
Lastly; people living with HIV now live longer because of improved care and support. So issues of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, obesity and diabetes have emerged. Thus; priority should be to continue providing care and support to people living with HIV as a chronic disease while monitoring those with non-communicable diseases for early detection for relevant care.
95:95:95 are targets set by the United Nations Joint Program on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS). The targets stand for 95% of all people living with HIV in a given setting to know their HIV status, 95% of those who know their HIV status to be receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 95% of those receiving ART to have their viral load suppressed. According to the Ministry Of health Malawi HIV Program Data; Malawi is at 95:99:95 against the global 95:95:95 targets for national HIV responses to achieve epidemic control and end AIDS by 2030. Malawi is working towards sustaining gains made in mitigating against HIV over the years.
