AS the year picks up and businesses resuming after the festivities, everyone’s focus is now geared towards ending the year with some achievements.
This equally, might not be realised if one is sick and would spend a lot of time fighting an ailment that could have been avoided in the name of HIV/AIDS.
HIV/AIDS is not something new in the community, especially by this time when it must have touched almost every family by losing a member or one living with the disease.
Coupled with this annually Tanzania has been joining the globe to mark the World AIDS Day on 1 December since 1988, when it was dedicated as an international day to raise awareness on the pandemic and mourning those who have died of the ailment, because it has not been tamed and hence, caution is a must.
As Tanzanians, this is another time we need to assess how much we are prepared to fight the ailment, whose higher number of deaths still shows that the war is far from over.
The government has been doing its part including initiating Tanzania AIDS Commission (TACAIDS) to fight it and more recently in the northern parts of Shinyanga area, there is an ongoing ‘Doctors with Africa Cuamm’ pilot project seeking to develop the “Test and Treat” model to HIV.
All these are becoming successful and bearing fruits, but still the major concern is the population behavior change towards the disease.
As the pilot projects goes for the Universal Test and Treat (UTT) model suggested by the World Health Organisation’s guidelines as a potential innovative system for treating and preventing HIV, behavuoirs in the society which trigger the disease spread must still be condemned.
To achieve the intended goal(s), Tanzanians must be reminded that voluntary testing and those who test positive should not be stigmatised, but instead immediately give antiretroviral treatment room.
This approach should be adopted and supported right into the grassroots by local leaders (including faith based, influential people, politicians) up the hierarchy so that those who test positive get automatic treatment and so reduce the chance(s) of infecting others and spreading the virus.
By focusing on the voluntary HIV Test and Treat method, it is hoped that within twenty years we could eliminate HIV as a public health problem and drastically reduce rates of contagion and death.
This war is possible if all Tanzanians agree to pull forces together and mobilise one another that fighting a disease like this must start from within.
Myths associated with the ailment including being seen as a ‘Radio Disease’ must be condemned; otherwise we shall all perish in its claws.
