International Treatment Preparedness Coalition has been launched under the umbrella of Gambia Network of Aids Support Society in the country to increase access to antiretroviral therapy for people living with the Human Immune Virus.
The project covers at least eleven West African countries including The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Guinea, and Togo.
It also aims to formalize and expand existing community treatment observatories to all focus countries, create a regional treatment observatory and build the capacity of the eleven national people living with HIV networks to do treatment monitoring.
Samba Sey, program manager at GAMNAS said: “The project is targeting key population in the country and that key population they are the youth for this HIV infection because we see to it that they are the people that more vulnerable to HIV infection.”
He said despite registering a significance progress in the AIDS response since 1988 but added that still many are yet to be done in preventing the infection among people, adding that many people do not know their status.
Mr. Sey added that the key barrier to HIV prevention is stigma and discrimination which he said discourages many people from taking the test.
He said: “Unfortunately many barriers to HIV prevention remain stigma and discrimination still deters people from taking an HIV test. Access to confidential HIV test is still a concern many people still get tested after becoming ill symptomatic.”
He further described HIV testing as essential for expanding treatment to ensuring that people living with HIV can live healthy and productive life.
“It is also crucial to archiving the 390s target and empowering people to make a choice about HIV prevention so they can protect themselves and their love ones,” he stated.
Author:Adama Makasuba
