As an important strategy towards achieving zero AIDS-related death in Africa, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Saturday, launched Treatment 2015 – a new HIV treatment guideline.
The framework, launched at the International Conference Centre (ICC) Abuja, is to accelerate action in reaching 15 million people with antiretroviral (ARV) treatment by 2015 – the target year set by the United Nations Members State two years back.
The launch was part of the official programme of the Special Summit on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which starts tomorrow.
Executive Director UNAIDS, Michael Sidibe, said the framework offers countries and partners both practical and innovative ways to increase access to antiretroviral medicines.
These medicines, he noted, would not only enable people living with HIV to live longer and healthier lives but will also help prevent new infections.
Sidibe told international delegates at the launch that about 10 years ago it was thought that effective treatment at $15,000 per person a year and 18 toxic pills per day were impossible.
“But today, with innovations that have created one-pill treatment a-day, we have reached more people… Countries and partners need to urgently and strategically invest resources and efforts to ensure that everyone has access to HIV prevention and treatment,” he said.
Treatment 2015 outlines three fundamental pillars essential to reaching the 2015 target.
The pillars are demand (increasing demand for HIV testing and treatment services), invest (mobilising resources and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of spending) and deliver (ensuring more people have access to antiretroviral therapy).
NgrGuardian
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