The Voice Reporter
In the course of fighting against HIV and AIDS around the globe including Africa, governments had established national HIV and AIDS offices to handle such dangerous diseases such as diagnosis , treatment and counseling, Republic of The Gambia is no exception.
During this year’s press conference ahead of commemoration of World AIDS Day, the Programme Manager of The Gambia National AIDS Control Programme, Ousman Bah, revealed that the 2020 National Sentinel Surveillance discovered that HIV prevalence in the country is one point fifty two(1.52 )%. And that they were able to diagnosed fifty one percent (51 %) HIV positive approximately fourteen thousand (14, 0000) people representing this scary percentage of HIV positive. With sixty one percent (61%) responding to HIV treatment.
“The prevalence of HIV in this country is at 1.52% Based on the national Sentinel surveillance of 2020. And the estimated number of people living with HIV is over 26,000 people. But we were able to diagnose only 51% of them, which is around 14,000 people that we are able to diagnose, which is almost about 55%. And then, for those on treatment, we were able to put almost all those people who were found to be positive we were able to put almost 61% of them on treatment,” he said.
Mr. Bah stressed that the National AIDS Control Programme has a target of diagnosing ninety five percent (95%) of people living with HIV and administer treatment to them.
“But as we speak now, we are far from the target of 95 %, if you look at the statistics available only 55% diagnosis and 61% on treatment. But we have been trying over the years, and now we were able to establish about seventy six (76) sites to decentralize HIV delivery services in the country’’, he reechoed.