Lab services to be at centre of HIV/Aids fight

Milk remains a key source of nutrients to fight stunting among children. Taking milk results into good mental and physical development.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Milk remains a key source of nutrients to fight stunting among children. Taking milk results into good mental and physical development. As far its composition is concerned, this wonder food is rich in proteins, vitamins A, B, B12, nutrients that contribute to strong and healthy bones. This was said by a health and nutritional specialist by the Global Communities/Usaid Ejo Heza while launching a milk campaign targeting lactating mothers and children in Gisagara District last week. 

Gisagara has the highest rate with over 48 per cent of children afffected by malnutrition. Infact, statistics inidicate that 44 per cent of the children under the age of five are still affected by chronic malnutrition.

 On that serious note, mothers in the district claim that milk is expensive but would be affordable if only their husbands did not spend most of their money purchasing alcohol but rather provide for their families.

In another effort to strengthen the fight against HIV/Aids, an initiative by the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) and Unaids seeks laboratory services to be placed at the vanguard of the fight. 

The Diagnostic Access Initiative aims to have 90 per cent of all people living with HIV/Aids diagnosed and on treatment by the year 2020, as well as ensuring 90 per cent of people receiving antiretroviral treatment (ART) achieve almost undetectable levels of the disease in their blood.

According to Unaids, 90 per cent of people living with HIV/Aids in the country have been diagnosed, meaning that Rwanda has already reached the first goal of the new initiative.

But the biggest news trending in the world now is of the deadly Ebola virus wreaking havoc in West Africa. Travel advisories are already doing rounds. Such was the troll when one started that a suspected Ebola patient had been cited in the country but the government was quick to rebut the allegations.

However, for World Health Organisation, there is nothing to rebut in the face of Ebola as the epidemic has been declared a global emergency.