Namwala District Aids Task Force Chairperson Father Kennedy Sitemeki has said that the HIV Prevalence rate in the district has drastically reduced.
In an interview with ZANIS yesterday Father Sitemeki revealed that 13 VCT centres in the district which carried out tests during the National VCT campaign recorded a low number of people with HIV/AIDS and a high number of negative cases.
Father Sitemeki attributed this to government intensified efforts aimed at providing good health care to its citizens.
He added that Non-governmental organizations and the church have also done a lot to sensitize people on the dangers and how to prevent HIV and AIDS.
The Clergy has since appealed to youths to abstain from sexual activities and concentrate on building their careers because they are the country’s future leaders.
Father Sitemeki has also appealed to married couples to be faithful to each other so that they do not acquire the virus outside marriage.
He commended NGOs who are engaged in distributing condoms for the good work done in Namwala as evidenced in the low prevalence rate recorded during the National VCT day campaign in the month of June 2011.
[ ZANIS ]
Becareful, it may be that those that are already negative feel more confident to go and test to confirm their negative status, while those that are positive are less willing to go to test and possibly expose themselves to stigma. Let us be careful the way we interpret these statistics. Having said that it is possible ofcourse for Namwala to have low HIV prevalence given its geographical and socio-economic location. It is possible that most of HIV positive people either already know their status and don’t need to test, or they have actually died, or both.
tHESE PEOPLE HAVE STOPED KHANI YOLASANA………………………………..;)
Its sad because people in Namwala are no longer enjoying themselves. Tuletungana bane