By Adama Makasuba
The Gambia is making efforts to meet the triple 95 target to eliminate HIV & AIDS by 2030, amid growing fear of stigma and discrimination in people to go for HIV & AIDS testing at the hospitals and health clinics and lack of political will and funding support to tackle the virus. Only 26,000 people tested positive with HIV & AIDS out of 2.5 million people in The Gambia.
.Speaking to reporters at a news conference held in Kairaba Avenue, Adama Drammeh, director of the National Aids Secretariat, noted the importance of political commitment from the government to the fight against HIV & AIDS in the country.
“Successful HIV responses need strong political leadership, addressing inequality, involving communities and organizations, and ensuring enough sustainable funds,” she said, adding that “despite all these achievements, many new infections still happen each year because some people still do not know how to protect themselves mainly due to the stigma and discrimination around them. And also around people living with HIV & AIDS.”
Adama said despite the world’s efforts to slow down the spread of the virus in people. She urged the Gambian public that they “must not become complacent” that the virus is not in the country. Sira Ndow, country director of the United Nations Program on HIV & AIDS, also highlighted that communities and civil societies are neglected in their efforts toward ending HIV & AIDS.
In addition to the above, she said, “Communities connect people with person-centered public health services, build trust, innovate, monitor implementation of policies and services, and hold providers accountable. But communities are being held back in their leadership due to funding shortages, policies and regulatory challenges, capacity constraints, a crackdown on civil societies, and the human rights of the marginalized communities.” However, if these obstacles are removed, community organizations can add more significant input to the global HIV response.
“We call on the communities’ leadership roles to be made core in all HIV plans and programs and their formulations,” she added.
