First Lady, UNAIDS chief visit Police Hospital

The visiting Executive Director of UNAIDS Michel Sidibé, and First Lady Jeannette Kagame, yesterday, toured Kacyiru Police Hospital. Among the places they visited were the Isange One Stop Centre at the hospital victims of Gender-Based Violence are treated. The centre also attends to the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids and the Family Package Programme. The officials were accompanied by Health Minister Agnes Binagwaho and Daniel Nyamwasa, the director of the Police Hospital. Sidibé is on a three-day visit in the country to experience the progress made in the national response to HIV/Aids. Assessing Aids fightDr Nyamwasa said the Family Package Programme centrehas 370 beneficiaries who are infected with HIV/Aids, including discordant couples. The Family Package programme includes prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) and provision of health care, prenatal and obstetrical services, linkage to reproductive health programmes, nutritional support, psychosocial services and income-generating activities to HIV-positive mothers. The project presently operates in 27 health centres in six districts in the country, where women get antenatal care and those found HIV positive are organised in associations and cooperatives and supported to start micro income-generating activities. First Lady and her guest also visited the PMTCT centre, which has so far received 8,419 cases since its inception.Dr Nyamwasa said the delegates were in the hospital to see the progress made in the fight and treatment of HIV/Aids.Enormous vision “The First Lady supports some of the programmes here that help persons infected with HIV/Aids, so it was an honour to have her and the UNAIDS envoy visit. We have established many strategies to help people living with HIV to come out of isolation and live positively,” he said. Sidibé, whose vision is zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero Aids-related deaths which he has made the end goal of UNAIDS, is expected to meet President Paul Kagame during his stay in the country.He will also meet with ministers and other delegates to discuss the progress and challenges surrounding Aids epidemic and its response. In a press statement from UNAIDS, Sidibé called for the elimination of new HIV infections among children by 2015.

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First Lady, UNAIDS chief visit Police Hospital