THE Chairperson of the National Council of People Living with HIV (NACOPHA), Ms Leticia Mourcice, has asked the community to shun HIV related stigma and commit themselves to a meaningful engagement in national HIV response.
Speaking here during the launch of the National Strategic Plan for the Network of Young People Living with HIV and AIDS in Tanzania (NYP+) in Dodoma, she argued that some people living with HIV were afraid of obtaining services from different health facilities because of stigma.
However, according to her, there has been a great improvement in the provision of ARVs compared to the previous years, paying tribute to the government for improving service provision to persons living with HIV.
The NACOPHA chairperson said the government had heightened services, especially availability of condoms which she said were scarce in the past.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, Kaspar Mmuya, said the rate of HIV infections had gone down, insisting that current figures show that Tanzania had 1.7 million infections per year.
Mr Mmuya said that the main cause was the fact that many Tanzanians were engaging in sexual activities at just a tender age.
Also, according to him, other causes were the love for luxurious life
especially for those coming from poor families, improper use of condoms as well as shyness in buying condoms from medical facilities.
The main affected group according to the deputy PS was young persons, adding that a massive education campaign was needed to help them.
Out of 1.7million new infections per year, according to Mr Mmuya, 40 per cent were youths, whereby 80 per cent of them are women.
Majority of them are eager to have expensive facilities, something that finds them falling into a trap of HIV infections,’’ he noted.
He further urged the community to shun away their fear and shy in buying condoms and end up having unprotected sex.
He added that stigma was still yet another problem that was discouraging people from having voluntary testing thus spreading the viruses to other persons.
NYP+ Chairperson, Ms Pudensia Mbiliza said persons living with HIV were encountering stigma from their communities, something that was hindering others to go for voluntary testing.
However, she said, NYP+ that had 17,018 members countrywide, was continuing with massive education campaigns countrywide in efforts to rescue a large group of youth in the country.
