By Allieu Sahid Tunkara
Communications Coordinator at the National AIDS Secretariat (NAS) has urged donor partners to not neglect the fight against the HIV which he says has also claimed the lives of many people in the country.
Speaking to Politico at his Kingharman Road office in Freetown, Abu Bakarr Koroma said the Ebola outbreak had diverted attention from the fight against HIV as “all attention is focused on Ebola eradication in the country.” He said Ebola had forced them to suspend most of their planned projects adding that they had stopped conducting hospital and community outreach programmes as well as and referral tests.
Koroma said the funds they had secured from Global Fund for 2015 “are still with us and we are negotiating for more funds for 2016 and 2017 so that we can embark on our planned activities as soon as the country is declared Ebola-free.”
He said they hoped to supply condoms to every Ebola treatment centre in the country “because we believe Ebola survivors are infecting their partners through sex," noting that for the month of November, NAS distributed 200,000 condoms in their effort to contain the spread of HIV as Sierra Leone had maintained its 1.5% HIV infection rate since 2005.
Project Officer for Network of HIV Positives (NETHIP), Sorie Kanu, said the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country had had a negative impact on HIV/AIDS programmes and activities in the country as they could no longer provide much needed services to people because of the public emergency.
He said “HIV patients no longer go to health facilities because of the fear created by the Ebola virus”.
© Politico 19/11/14
