President Paul Kagame on Tuesday stressed the need for increased partnerships to disburse funds in a flexible manner with the goal of strengthening health systems that contain current and future pandemics. Kagame who was speaking at a high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS which was held under the auspices of the UN General Assembly highlighted that while various countries including Rwanda, have achieved nearly all of the 90-90-90 targets, it is not yet time to celebrate especially as countries commit to ending the disease by 2030. The global 90-90-90 strategy was set to ensure that by 2020, 90 per cent of people with HIV know their status, with at least 90 per cent of them having access to antiretroviral treatment and therapy and 90 per cent of those on therapy having viral suppression. The Head of State reiterated that Rwanda’s HIV prevalence remains stable at 3 per cent since 2005. “But it is not yet time to celebrate. There is still 95 to be achieved, and then 100.” He added, “That is the reason why a new Political Declaration is needed, to end the HIV pandemic by 2030.” President Kagame pointed out that HIV/AIDS and Covid-19 are both pandemics, despite the former being 40 years old and the latter only a year and a half. Based on that, he said, there are common lessons to learn and shortcomings to address. A decade lost “First, the quality and speed of response are still mostly determined by wealth and poverty,” in addition, “Waiting to respond to HIV in Africa was a mistake, because the virus was spreading, even though it was treatable.” Kagame said that some people believed that Africans would not be able to take their medicine on time, citing that a decade was lost and many lives along the way. However, he asserted, the turning point in the fight against HIV in Africa was the consensus to invest heavily in national health systems, through key programs such as PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and others. “Indeed, the health systems that Africa has depended on to fight the Covid pandemic, were largely built with HIV funding.” For instance, he said that Rwanda’s National Reference Laboratory, initially built as an HIV laboratory, has performed thousands of Covid tests per day during the pandemic. “We must also seize this moment to increase scientific research collaboration with Africa, and to invest in drug and vaccine manufacturing capacity on our continent.” Kagame who joined various global leaders for the meeting commended the United Nations General Assembly, UNAIDS, the World Health Organisation, the African Union, and all funding partners for the continued determination to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The high-level meeting which ends on June 10 will provide recommendations to guide and monitor the HIV/AIDS response beyond 2021, including new concrete commitments to accelerate action to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The meeting is also calling for renewed commitment and engagement of leaders, countries, communities and partners to accelerate and implement a comprehensive universal and integrated response to HIV/AIDS.
