34th Anniversary of World Aids Day

HIV/Aids has proved to be a public health threat since time immemorial. It is for this reason that December 1st 1988 was set as World Aids Day – making it the 34th Anniversary of World Aids Day this year.

The UNAIDS Global Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima together with other officials on November 30 released the World AIDS Report 2022. This took place at Serena Hotel in Tanzania. The report was named : “ Dangerous inequalities “.

Drawing from this report, Uganda popular Television station NTV Uganda posted on its Twitter account: “ According to the recent UNAIDS data,570 young women aged 15 to 24 get infected with HIV every week in Uganda.”

The post goes ahead to note how the plight of HIV/AIDs spread remains shuttered. This is in contrast to some of the achievements registered by fellow East African countries such as Tanzania who have seen their HIV/Aids cases reduced by almost 50%.

Finally, the post ends with a question to the general public : What haven’t we done right? “ . In the fight to prevent Aids , what is that that we haven’t done right ?

Combating HIV/AIDs on this World Aids Day

This year’s World Aids Day theme :” Putting ourselves to the test : Achieving Equity to End HIV , “ speaks of how we ought to as a collective fight the inequalities that perpetuate the AIDs pandemic.

The inequalities and barriers referred to her refer to all activities and circumstances that hinder HIV testing, prevention and access to HIV care.

As a result, this theme has been shortened to one single slogan : Equalise #Equalize – a call to action for all of us to combine efforts for the proven practical actions that can aid in doing away with the inequalities. This would then help end Aids at some point.

First and foremost, the first praticle is to increase availability, quality and suitability of services. This would then make HIV testing, treatment and prevention well served to all individuals.

Next, there is need to reform laws ,policies and practices so as to eliminate stigma and exclusion faced by individuals living with HIV.Everyone ought to be shown respect and welcomed regardless of whether they belong to marginalized populations.

Furthermore more, technology use should be brought into this fight where by it is shared and used to enable equal access to the best HIV science. Lastly, communities should take the “ Equalise “ message seriously. This will enable identification of the inequalities and to press for the actions needed to address them.