NAMIBIA – WINDHOEK (The Namibian) - The conference for men on HIV-AIDS was a timely wake-up call, President Hifikepunye Pohamba said.
Addressing around 200 men attending a conference on the disease, Pohamba said it was about time men took up their responsibility in the fight and joined their female counterparts. For too long men have remained in the background, Pohamba said, while many were infected and affected by the disease. "Very few of our men accompany their partners for services or seek services themselves. Worse still, when our men seek service, it is most often at an advanced stage of illness.
If our women are left to carry out this fight alone, they will be weakened by the virus and demoralised by our inadequate support for them," Pohamba told the gathering. He said women cannot even disclose their HIV status in many instances because of fear of rejection and violence that have often followed such moves. "In unity we are stronger than the virus. Therefore, let us all join hands to fight stigma and discrimination.
Let us stop violence against our women and rather care and support them in the fight against the virus," the President said. The conference was organised for men to share views on how to do better in the fight against HIV-AIDS. "It is a call for action for us men to redouble our efforts in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Our recent past and experiences demand that we move very quickly.
In order to stop the spread of this epidemic, we need to move faster than the virus," Pohamba said. Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Dr Norbert Foster told the meeting that only around 17 per cent of Namibian men have been tested for the disease so far. That was way below the number of women who stream to the voluntary counselling and testing centres throughout Namibia. Another worrying aspect, Foster said, was that only around 10 per cent of the sexually active population got tested annually to know their HIV status.
Health Minister Dr Richard Kamwi said of the people receiving anti-retroviral treatment, 65 per cent were women and only 35 per cent men.
Namibia is one of the five countries worst affected by HIV-AIDS in the world, and one of only three countries in Africa that have met the goals set by the continent's leaders in 2001.