Malawi scores on global HIV targets

The United Nations has commended Malawi for being the first country to adopt the global 90:90:90 in its National Strategic Plan on HIV and Aids.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids (UNAids) deputy director for Regional Support Team for Eastern and Southern Africa, Pierre Somse, said on Wednesday that Malawi had scored a point for showing greater commitment towards eliminating the epidemic by integrating the targets in the strategic plan.

The targets seek countries’ commitment to have 90 percent of people living with HIV and Aids (PLHIV) know their status by 2020, 90 percent of people diagnosed with HIV to be on antiretroviral therapy (ART) by 2020 and 90 percent of patients on ART to be retained in care and have their viral load suppressed by 2020. The ultimate target is to end HIV and Aids by 2030.

Somse   made the remarks in Lilongwe at the official opening of a two-day national workshop on community-oriented service delivery models for HIV care.

Said Somse: “We stand proud that Malawi is the first country to adopt the targets in its National Strategic Plan on HIV and Aids. We commend government and its partners for being forward looking. UNAids is honoured and excited to be part of Malawi’s HIV response and is committed to remaining part of the success story.”

He said Malawi could also stand a chance to be a leader if government hastened the development of an overarching policy on community-oriented service delivery models that offers direction to implementers.

To this end, Somse urged government, NAC and donor partners to engage more effectively to come up with guidelines on standardised models along the HIV care cascade.

But Minister of Health, Peter Kumpalume, said the country has achieved this success amid  financial and human resource constraints.

He, therefore, appealed for more donor support, saying achieving the 90:90:90 targets will require greater commitment, efforts and resources.

Kumpalume said, among others, that the health sector is facing serious shortages of human resources, which are critical in managing the growing number of people initiated into ART.

“We, therefore, need to join hands in finding effective and efficient strategies in combating  HIV and Aids,” he said.

The workshop was jointly organised by UNAids, Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF), Mothers2Mothers and National Aids Commission (NAC).