By Mulenga Banda –
President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia hosted the Chief Executive Director of the UNAIDS, Ms. Winnie Byanyima at State House, Thursday praising her for the support being given to Zambia.
The support, the President said, has resulted in government’s commitment to ending AIDS by 2030 and reaffirmed their intention to reducing HIV infections especially among young people
“We thanked Her Excellency Ms. Byanyima for the UNAIDS role in building capacity and its unequivocal support of our efforts as a Country in stopping new HIV infections, through access to treatment as well as the UN’s promotion and protection of human rights in Zambia and globally.
“We applauded the UNAIDS for establishing the integrated Health Situation Room in March 2018 that has enabled us attain enormous benchmarks in our fight against HIV AIDS.
“As a result of this support, currently 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, while 98% of these are on antiretroviral therapy and 96% have achieved viral load suppression. These are remarkable achievements but more still remains to be done.
“We informed the Executive Director of Government’s commitment to ending AIDS by 2030 and reaffirmed our intention to reducing HIV infections especially among young people by our policy of free education that will keep them in school longer than in the community, where they are vulnerable to infection and drug abuse”.