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AT 15.7 per cent, Iringa has the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the country, but authorities hope to bring down the figure by half in 2012.
The Regional Commissioner, Mr Mohamed Abdulazizi, said here yesterday that until June, this year – 53,782 HIV/AIDS patients had registered for ARVs and 50 per cent of them had started taking the medicine.
“We aim at cutting by 50 per cent the infection rate and problems related to the disease by 2012 and in this regard, we are emphasising on behaviour change. The region has three times the average infection rate, which according to latest statistics, stands at around five per cent.
The RC was speaking after President Jakaya Kikwete had launched a centre for HIV treatment and prevention, where he called on people to test and know their status, so that they can plan their future.
The centre constructed and owned by a religious organisation – Dream Community of Saint Egidio of Italy, will provide HIV/AIDS and related services for free to all patients in the region.
President Kikwete said that the HIV/AIDS testing campaign has shown remarkable achievements in the previous three years, because some 5million people have tested countrywide, while in all the previous years only 500,000 people had tested.
He noted that the construction of the centre in the region was a big boost to the government’s efforts, to check new infections and help the affected ones to prolong their lives, through free provision of Antiretroviral Drugs (ARVS).
Mr Kikwete assured people of adequate drugs and that the government was committed to add more funds in the programme.
He said that the government was formulating a law to make sure that those deliberately spreading the disease were punished accordingly.
The president said that the problem was so serious that over 2million people were suffering, most of whom were youth. The DCSE Country Director, Mr Michelangelo Bartolo, said that the centre operates in 10 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 31 Dream Centres and 18 laboratories of molecular biology.
“We are inaugurating a bio-molecular laboratory, where in addition to routine analyses (Hemogram, Biochemistry and Cd4), it is also possible to determine viral load that is useful in following up the clinical progress of AIDS,” he said.
Mr Bartolo noted that as soon as the Medical Store Department provides them with reagents for haematology, biochemistry and CD4, the laboratory will be able to give its services free of charge for other CTC centres, especially in rural areas.
“Following the suggestion of the National Aids Control Programme, we will start in collaboration with the local authorities, a research programme for prevention of mother to child infection, with tri-therapy according to Dream protocol,” he said.