HIV-AIDS a national emergency: expert

AN ESTIMATED 800 000 Namibians are affected by HIV-AIDS – a situation that calls for urgent action – but it doesn’t seem to be regarded as a national emergency, an expert on the pandemic said yesterday.

“According to UNAIDS, between 200 000 and 250 000 Namibians are HIV infected. If that is so, since sufficient data are not available, each infected person would have at least three people affected by this condition, being family, so we can reckon that approximately 800 000 citizens are infected and affected by this disease,” according to Professor Nanas, leader of a team of foreign experts currently doing a review of Namibia’s national HIV-AIDS intervention activities.”If you include the medical staff at clinics dealing with the quarter of a million HIV-infected people, the church and civil society councillors and volunteers, you come to the figure of some 1,6 million people of Namibia’s population of two million being affected,” Poku said.”That is about three-quarters of the entire population.”The team gave a brief overview of their findings after scrutinising the third Medium-Term Plan (MTP3) of the overall National Strategic Action Plan on HIV-AIDS, which is carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.”Stakeholders also told us in interviews, that while there is a political commitment to fight HIV-AIDS, the sense of emergency to deal with it is not apparent on an operational level,” according to Poku.”Due to a lack of available statistics and data, but in order to underpin our findings, we looked at death rates in Namibia.We found that deaths between the years 2000 and 2005 in the age groups between 20 and 35 were the highest, with approximately 6 000 to 7 000 deaths recorded in the age brackets 25 to 30 and 30 to 35,” Poku continued.”The death rates tell us something with regard to the pandemic.”Poku added that while many donors funded AIDS programmes, this would not last forever and Government had to plan ahead to allocate more of its own national budget for AIDS programmes.”There is good progress like the increased sale of condoms, especially the Namibian brands, more testing centres available and support for orphans and vulnerable children.But there should be more data available about which age groups get HIV-tested, and how many women and men for instance.”Poku added that about 34 000 people were receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in Namibia, but by next year some 80 000 would require such treatment and about 140 000 by 2013.”The ART lags behind the needs,” according to Poku.The team also found that it was not known how many people defaulted on their ART or the mother-to-child-prevention treatment.Poverty often prevented patients from visiting hospitals to receive such treatment regularly, as they often could not afford transport.According to the experts, outreach programmes at schools were often not effective since schools were usually visited just once or twice to inform learners about the disease.The conference ends today.In Namibia, the only available HIV-prevalence statistics are based on a bi-annual sentinel survey, where only pregnant women coming to clinics for pre-natal care are tested for HIV-AIDS.According to the 2006 survey, the prevalence rate is 19,7 per cent.This statistic only includes pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 49.If that is so, since sufficient data are not available, each infected person would have at least three people affected by this condition, being family, so we can reckon that approximately 800 000 citizens are infected and affected by this disease,” according to Professor Nanas, leader of a team of foreign experts currently doing a review of Namibia’s national HIV-AIDS intervention activities.”If you include the medical staff at clinics dealing with the quarter of a million HIV-infected people, the church and civil society councillors and volunteers, you come to the figure of some 1,6 million people of Namibia’s population of two million being affected,” Poku said.”That is about three-quarters of the entire population.”The team gave a brief overview of their findings after scrutinising the third Medium-Term Plan (MTP3) of the overall National Strategic Action Plan on HIV-AIDS, which is carried out under the auspices of the Ministry of Health and Social Services.”Stakeholders also told us in interviews, that while there is a political commitment to fight HIV-AIDS, the sense of emergency to deal with it is not apparent on an operational level,” according to Poku.”Due to a lack of available statistics and data, but in order to underpin our findings, we looked at death rates in Namibia.We found that deaths between the years 2000 and 2005 in the age groups between 20 and 35 were the highest, with approximately 6 000 to 7 000 deaths recorded in the age brackets 25 to 30 and 30 to 35,” Poku continued.”The death rates tell us something with regard to the pandemic.”Poku added that while many donors funded AIDS programmes, this would not last forever and Government had to plan ahead to allocate more of its own national budget for AIDS programmes.”There is good progress like the increased sale of condoms, especially the Namibian brands, more testing centres available and support for orphans and vulnerable children.But there should be more data available about which age groups get HIV-tested, and how many women and men for instance.”Poku added that about 34 000 people were receiving anti-retroviral treatment (ART) in Namibia, but by next year some 80 000 would require such treatment and about 140 000 by 2013.”The ART lags behind the needs,” according to Poku.The team also found that it was not known how many people defaulted on their ART or the mother-to-child-prevention treatment.Poverty often prevented patients from visiting hospitals to receive such treatment regularly, as they often could not afford transport.According to the experts, outreach programmes at schools were often not effective since schools were usually visited just once or twice to inform learners about the disease.The conference ends today.In Namibia, the only available HIV-prevalence statistics are based on a bi-annual sentinel survey, where only pregnant women coming to clinics for pre-natal care are tested for HIV-AIDS.According to the 2006 survey, the prevalence rate is 19,7 per cent.This statistic only includes pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 49.