The ministry of health has revealed a plan to seek and encourage 10, 044 children living with HIV to start administration of antiretroviral therapy, migrating away from giving much attention on adults only but bring the youngsters of between 2 and 15 year-olds in the therapy loop.
According to the ministry, 18,000 children were supposed to get antiretroviral therapy but only 7,956 obtained it.
From 1st December 2015, MINISANTE will embark on new policies to fill the gaps in inadequate administration of antiretroviral therapy among teens.
Dr. Muhayimpundu Ribakare an official in MINISANTE in charge of AIDS prevention said that Rwanda is ready to launch a campaign to mobilize everyone on responsibilities to protect and bring health assistance to HIV positive children.
“Making HIV/AIDS tests are among the planned activities to prevent new contractions, encouraging parents to protect their children and get free HIV/AIDS tests. We will also look for already infected children and start them on antiretroviral therapy,” he said.
He added that parents seeking medical assistance at health centers will get tips on having their children tested for HIV/AIDS, noting that parents should come out of their shells and talk to their children about HIV/AIDS and reproductive health if the epidemic is to be squarely addressed.
Available statistics indicate that 3% of Rwandans live with HIV/AIDS; 7.1% in urban settings and 2.3 % in rural areas with 80% of infected adults accessing antiretroviral therapy.
Within health care institutions in Rwanda, 90% of them offer AIDS prevention services, AIDS testing, counseling on prevention, taking care of infected pregnant women and provide antiretroviral therapy.
Of the 200,000 Rwandans with HIV, 150,000 of them receive adequate healthcare treatment. Globally, at least 3.2 million children of less than 15 years live with HIV/AIDS, while almost 4 million people aged between 15 and 24 have the virus.
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