The successes in
many areas aside, Namibia is still to put its finger on the pulse and find out
what is driving the HIV epidemic in the country. Salvator Niyonzima, the UNAIDS
country coordinator in Namibia.
“We still have no clear idea of what is driving the epidemic. That
would enable us to address the drivers, the specific factors, behind the
epidemic,” said Salvator Niyonzima, the UNAIDS country coordinator in Namibia.
Equally important is to recognise that Namibia and the entire southern Africa
region lag behind in fighting the epidemic with prevalence rates going up,
although some are levelling off, but still on increasing curves. The region is
the epicentre of the epidemic with new infections rates especially among adults.
Yet Niyonzima talks of progress pointing at the 2.5 million people living with
HIV/AIDS who are on treatment. Namibia in particular has managed to put almost
70% of its HIV infected population on treatment. The figure represents about
40000 patients. “That is significant progress,” he said. He does emphasise,
though, that on the prevention side there is a need for “a lot of efforts
through sound mobilization, in making the population aware of the danger.”
Although we do have awareness campaigns such as Take Control, “one has to
recognize that a prevalence rate of 19.9% is quite high.” In 2002, the
prevalence rate was at 20-point something. But Niyonzima’s emphasis is that
Namibia has not been able to bring the prevalence rate down significantly. All
these presents what he calls a combination of challenges and hopes – looking at
what we have been able to achieve- all showing that “we still need to work
harder.”