By Mabinty M. Kamara
Sierra Leone’s Chief Medical Officer, Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Samba, has called for a review of commitment to the fight against the global HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sierra Leone.
Dr Samba was speaking at a Civil Society Dialogue on HIV/AIDS conference held on Monday, November 30th, ahead of the commemoration of World AIDS Day (WAD) on December 1.
“As we commemorate World Aids Day, we should review our commitment as a nation for an inclusive and sustainable HIV response that promotes universal health coverage and access, to scale up comprehensive prevention approaches, to invest, so as to guarantee antiretroviral therapy coverage in Sierra Leone,” he said.
The civil society dialogue was convened to discuss the impact of COVID-19 on the HIV/AIDS response. Participants discussed the way forward, including fund raising approaches.
As a key note speaker, Dr Samba made a presentation on the state of the HIV pandemic in the country, revealing that HIV infection is more prevalent among married women than their non-married counterparts. He noted that HIV affects different populations through multiple and diverse transmission dynamics.
According to data attributed to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), an estimated 1.7% of women and men aged 15-49 in Sierra Leone are living with HIV, representing 78, 000 people, of whom 35,000 are women 15 years or older, and 4, 400 are children age 0-14 years.
“HIV prevalence is higher among women than in men (2.2% versus 1.1%). Among young people and ages 15-24, HIV prevalence is higher among young women than young men (1.5% versus 0.5%). Young women who are married or living together with a partner have a higher HIV prevalence than their never married counterparts (1.9% versus 1.3%),” Dr Samba said.
The theme for this year’s commemoration of the World AIDS Day is “Global Solidarity Shared Responsibility: AIDS the other pandemic.”
According to officials, the event held at the Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel in Freetown was geared towards strengthening the capacity and reliance of communities and health systems to deliver HIV services in the midst of the global colliding pandemics of HIV and COVID-19.
Sierra Leone Country Director, UNAIDS, Dr. Isaac Ahemesah, noted that people commemorate World AIDS Day to come together to support people living with HIV and affected by HIV, remember those who have lost their life as a result of the virus and to celebrate progress made together towards ending HIV as a public health threat by 2030.
He added that COVID has shown how health is interrelated with other critical issues such as gender inequality, social protection and economic growth, and the fact that people need to work together, as well as how women and men can be in the midst of pandemic.
“It is my hope that these consultations today will help us to think about how to better finance our health system and to ensure that when there is a pandemic like this in future, we will have enough funding for the ministry to respond to the disease more appropriately and also how do we ensure that this funding goes to the communities to help them respond positively,” he said.
Dr. Ahemesah admonished men in the midst of the 16 days of activism to ensure that women and girls are protected.
The Director General, Nation Aid Secretariat, Abdul Rahaman Sesay, noted that they have been working with the Ministry of Health to integrate their programs and health services to the needs of the people.
“We lost patients, COVID also affected the supply chain, we tried to adapt to the impact of the disease. By doing multi monthly testing which we were not prepared for and it led to stock out and up to this time, we are battling with some of the challenges,” he said.
During the discussions, the officials pointed timely availability of the necessary resources, including drugs, to respond to patient need as a major challenge in the response.
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