H.E. President Koroma addressing NAC members 7-08-2013

His Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has said at the 7^th National AIDS Commission (NAC) meeting held at state house on 23^rd July 2013 that Sierra Leone has made significant progress towards universal access to HIV/AIDS services as well as meeting the MDG target on HIV/AIDS by 2015.He however noted that mobilization of domestic resources was very much crucial to sustain the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country.

“Our coverage rate on treatment for adult and children infected with HIV rose from 33% in 2010 to about 52% in 2012. Treatment among pregnant HIV positive women increased from 47% in 2011 to 96% in 2012. We have also witnessed recorded increased survival rate among people infected with the disease from 83% in 2010 to 92.6% in 2012”. President Koroma disclosed.

The Chief Executive further said the HIV/AIDS secretariat was exploring ways to tapping domestic resources to complement support provided by development partners as a way of improving sustainability of the national response to the malaise. Saying “it is time now for us to begin to fully appreciate ownership of our national response and we must all play our different roles to ensure that the resources we have are optimally utilized to sustain our programs.”

The president emphasized that the national response was still not sustainable because of the dependency on external support. “we still have a long way to achieving our goal of Zero New Infections, Zero HIV related stigma and Zero AIDS related death by 2015.” Together… we will get there”.

NAC meeting in progress 7-08-2013

Dr Brima Kargbo, outgoing of the National HIV/AIDS Secretariat paid glowing tribute to President Koroma for the high level of commitment he had shown in the concerted effort to slow down the spread of the virus in Sierra Leone.

It would be recalled that in 2001 Heads of State and Governments made commitments at the United Nations to address the problem of HIV/AIDS in all its aspects as a matter of urgency.

The declaration sets out priorities for Member States, which include, ensuring that people everywhere particularly the young, know what to do to avoid infection; to stop perhaps the most tragic of all forms of HIV transmission, from mother-to-child; provide treatment to all those infected; to care for all whose lives have been devastated by AIDS, particularly the orphans.

Dr. Kargbo also noted that much has been accomplished since 2001 in which the Government of Sierra of Sierra Leone is committed to scaling up towards the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services by 2015. “As we move towards universal access, people living with HIV will be able to return to work, young people would have learnt how to protect themselves and mothers will deliver babies free from HIV”, said Dr Brima Kargbo, erstwhile Director of the National AIVS Secretariat.

On progress made so far, Dr Kargbo said progress was made possible through the numerous partners, including The Global Fund, UN Agencies, Bilateral and Multilateral Partners. He disclosed that another $55million has been mobilized from the Global Fund for HIV and Health Systems Strengthening and another £6million Euro from the German Government through the German Development Bank for impact Mitigation and Social Marketing of Condoms.

In his presentation of the country progress report on HIV/AIDS, Team Leader, Health Sector Response, Dr Momodu Sesay said the vision of the Commission is to attain zero new HIV infections, Zero stigma and Discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths in Sierra Leone. He further noted that the goal of the Commission is to prevent HIV/AIDS, provide treatment, care and support as well as mitigate its socio-economic impact at both national and sub-national levels in Sierra Leone.

Dr Sesay alo maintained that the Commission is guided by the strategic documents developed in 2011-2012 Operational Plan, 2013-2015 Strategic Plan for EMTCT and the HIV/AIDS Commission Act of 2011 for the implementation of the process.

According to Momodu Sesay, HIV prevalence still stands and stabilized at 1.5% since 2008, adding that prevalence rate among women and men is 1.7% and 1.2% respectively. Among adolescents, he notd that the prevalence rate is 1.4% for girls and 0.5% for boys respectively. Moreover, Dr Sesay revealed that the prevalence rate among the urban population is 2.5% and 1% among the rural population. With respect to the prevalence rate among pregnant women, Dr Ssay said 3.2% of pregnant women attending Antenatal Clinics were infected, while of the 47,000 people infected, 6,000 are children. He also pointed out that the epidemic is mixed, generalized and heterogeneous affecting different population subgroups.

Abdul Rahman Sesay, Deputy of the HIV/AIDS Secretariat highlighted during his presentation on the update on domestic and external resource

Vice President Sam Sumana making an appeal to Donors

mobilization for the national HIV/AIDS response the significant nuances making the implement of programs challenging. He noted the following: competing demands form small-in-country donor base, Sierra Leone not among the list of Donors’ 32 priority countries because of low HIV prevalence and global economic crisis facing most development partners committed to investing in health. These, he said, make domestic resource mobilization critical for the ownership and sustainability of the National Response against HIV/AIDS.

The Deputy Director also maintained that successes on reducing HIV prevalence and the increasing health impact of the national response is happening but sustainability is challenged by not just a funding gap of over $100million as per 2011-2015 NSP but also overdependence on external support remains very high at 95%.

In his presentation on the estimated size of key populations (PSE) study, Mr. Victor S. Kamara said the key findings were that key population experience high level of stigma, discrimination, violence and homophobia. He also noted that female sex workers (FSW) surveyed were under the age of 15 and the main perpetuators of violence for FSW were their clients.

Mr. Kamara further revealed that social networks were key to accessing homosexuals dubbed as Men Sex Men (MSM) population, whilst 17% of those interviewed identified themselves as transgender. Also, 61% interviewed report selling sex and People Who Injecting Drugs (PWID) reported low use of sterile injecting equipment. He recommended stronger campaign on HIV testing as well as the need to promote condom use among the entire population. The need to also provide job training opportunities, livelihood alternatives for youth and strategic funding to address condom distribution, harm reduction and anti-violence programming was highly necessary.

The meeting was presided over by His Excellency, President Dr Ernest Bai Koroma. Also in attendance was the Vice President, key cabinet ministers, development partners, representatives of civil societies as well as a representative of the inter-religious council.