Year-long World Aids campaign launch today
Malawi is today set to officially launch the year-long 2014/15 World Aids campaign as the country joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2014 World Aids Day on December 1.
The Department of Nutrition and HIV and Aids in the Ministry of Health said in a statement yesterday the day will be commemorated under the current theme of ‘Getting to Zero: Zero new HIV infections, Zero AIDS-related deaths and Zero Discrimination’.
Principal secretary for Nutrition and HIV and Aids Edith Mkawa, who signed the statement, said the theme is backed by the United Nations campaign of Getting to Zero which runs up to 2015.
She said: “As we are coming to the end of Getting to Zero campaign in 2015, we are moving towards the 90:90:90 campaign. This theme aims at enabling Malawi diagnosing 90 percent of all people living with HIV, start and retain 90 percent of those diagnosed on antiretroviral therapy [ART] as well as achieving viral suppression for 90 percent of patients on ART. This theme will take us from 2015 to 2020.”
In Malawi, according to Unicef, Aids continues to infect 10 000 people every year and around 46 percent of new infections occur among young people aged 15 to 24 whereas an estimated population of 89 000 children under the age of 15 are living with the disease.
World Aids Day, observed on December 1 annually, serves to raise awareness on the HIV and Aids epidemic, honour those who died of Aids and allows nations across the world to focus on issues that are key to a successful national response.
The day was the first-ever global health day and the first one was held in 1988.
