Youth in the country have been urged to seek voluntary HIV testing to know their status while adhering to preventive tools to reverse the trend of high HIV prevalence among young people. According to Rwanda Biomedical center (RBC), youth understanding of HIV and reproductive health is critical, as it affects their attitude to prevention mechanisms. It is in this context that the RBC wants to put more effort in sensitisation to make sure the youth get the right information to prevent HIV. “We are reminding people, especially young people, that HIV/ AIDS is still a silent killer. Young people should be ahead of others in preventing new infections because if they get the infection the country loses its future,” said Dr Placidie Mugwaneza, the director of HIV prevention Unit/RBC in an interview last week. Rwanda joined the rest of the world on December 1 to mark the World AIDS Day. Under the theme “Get up all against HIV/AIDS-Still there,” this year’s celebration featured free voluntary counseling and testing in Nyarugenge District. At the occasion, RBC also launched a year-long HIV community sensitisation campaign. Dr Mugwaneza said that the battle against HIV among the youth incorporates education, including introducing comprehensive sex education into the curriculum. She added that to make sure they reach as many young people as possible, they introduced youth corners (family planning information 2016, HIV counseling & treatment, circumcision , treatment) in some health facilities with a plan to extend them where they have not been established . The recently introduced free condom kiosks is also being credited with preventing new HIV infections with now four established in different high risk zones in Kigali, namely Remera-Migina, Remera-Giporoso, Gikondo (Sodoma) and Nyamirambo. In days to come the RBC says it intends to reach other areas. According to RBC, the national prevalence rate is at 3.5 per cent. Annually, 5000 people are estimated to contract HIV infection and the country’s target is to reduce it to 1861 by 2018. Though there are no figures showing the prevalence of HIV among young people in Rwanda, the World Health Organisation indicates that in eastern and southern Africa, three quarters of all new HIV infections among adolescents aged 10–19 years are among adolescent girls. Adolescent girls are said to be often prevented from accessing HIV services owing to gender inequality, a lack of age-appropriate HIV services, stigma, a lack of decision-making power and gender-based violence. It is estimated that, worldwide, only three in 10 adolescent girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 24 years have comprehensive and correct knowledge about HIV. Reaching adolescent girls and young women, especially in sub Saharan Africa, will be a key factor in ending the AIDS, according to experts. The Imbuto Foundation is a key partner of the government to ending HIV among adolescents. In July, this year, the First Lady and Chairperson of the Imbuto Foundation, Mrs Jeannette Kagame, launched ‘All In Campaign’, a new drive to reach Rwandan adolescents with HIV prevention and adolescent sexual and reproductive health services. The campaign seeks to explore possible ways of reaching adolescents in various capacities by engaging, mobilising and empowering them as leaders and actors of social change, placing adolescent HIV firmly on political agendas. The campaign also aims to unite decision-makers in order to accelerate reduction in AIDS-related deaths and new HIV infections among adolescents by the year 2020. It is also part of the global effort to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by the year 2030. editorial@newtimes.co.rw
