Rwandans have been urged to seek voluntary HIV counselling and testing to know their sero status.  

The Minister of State for Public Health and Primary Health Care, Dr Anita Asiimwe, made the call while closing a six-month national anti-HIV/Aids campaign in Nyagatare District last week. 

"This will help everyone to know their status; it involves also children infected with HIV/Aids to be taken to hospital for proper medications,” Asiimwe said. 

The sensitisation campaign was done through Aids campaigners as part of efforts to achieve global target of zero new infections by 2015.  

The minister added that testing pregnant mothers would help fight mother-to-child infections. 

Behaviour change

Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, the head of HIV division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), said the aim of the campaign, which he said had impacted significantly on behaviour change, is to achieve zero infection and death.  

The rate of new infections was at 25,000 people every year five years ago, but it has drastically gone down to 15,000, he said. 

A recent Rwanda Demographic and Health Survey said because of access to antiviral drugs, HIV prevalence in Rwanda has remained at around 3 per cent since 2005. 

Among the pregnant mothers in the district, 140,000 tested for HIV during the six month awareness campaign and 114 were found to be infected.  

Of the 160 people who were tested for HIV from Matimba Sector, 36 were found to be HIV-positive. In Nyagatare Sector, 2,200 tested and 42 were found to be infected. 

The country director of UNAIDS Dludlu Sibongile appreciated the government’s efforts in HIV/Aids fight.

"The infection in Africa has reduced due to the great efforts put in the fight. Rwanda is among the countries which have put more efforts in preventing and controlling the transmission with the target of Zero by 2015,” she said, reaffirming UNAIDS committment to join efforts with the government in the fight against Aids.