The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr Agnes Binagwaho, has appealed to all organizations involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS to focus on best measures of fighting the scourge.

She made the call yesterday while officially opening a one-day consultative meeting on HIV/AIDS prevention and management draft bill for 2010 in the East African Community.

"What you are going to propose to governments is important and the best thing for regional building. It should therefore create a friendly environment for infected persons with no discrimination and provide them with equal opportunities and equal access to resources,” Binagwaho said. 

The yet-to-be adopted draft bill calls for prevention, management, mitigation; care and treatment and equal rights for HIV infected people.

Currently, 70 percent of HIV infected people have access to treatment in Rwanda.

"The law should provide the best measures of fighting the scourge in all ways,” Binagwaho said.

"It should be enough to focus on development, integration of EAC and Africa in general”.

The consultative meeting organized by Rwanda NGO Forum in collaboration with the National Commission for the Fight against Aids (CNLS), was attended by representatives from the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA), parliament and civil societies, among others.

Aimable Mwananawe, the President of the forum, called for an urgent harmonized strategy in terms of legal and policy framework to prevent and manage HIV/AIDS and its consequences in the region.

The meeting serves as an opportunity to have a common understanding on the whole process of enacting the EAC HIV/AIDS prevention and management draft bill, the urgent need at country level and steps taken to complete and own the bill.

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