Resurgence in HIV infections threaten gains against scourge

Reports about the resurgence of HIV/Aids and the development of drug resistant strains of HIV is cause for worry. What this means is that it will undermine global gains made towards eradicating the scourge by 2030 as projected.

There were 17.1 million patients on Anti-Retroviral drugs in 2015, 10 million more than in 2010. The rising deaths especially in sub-Saharan Africa is undermining efforts to push back the march of the killer virus with no known cure yet.

And now, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has raised the alarm over the high toll attributed mostly to treatment failure or interruption and late diagnosis leading to delayed treatment.

According to a report to be released today by MSF, Kenya is among four countries where the incidence of the epidemic is threatening to get out of hand as patients arrive at medical facilities with acute immune failure with deaths reported within 48 hours later.

The report: Waiting isn't Option: Preventing and Surviving Advanced HIV, the authors warn that the broader fight against HIV is at risk of being reversed. It warns that the situation could get worse because of the anticipated cuts in funding by the US government to the Global Fund (17 per cent) and Pepfar (11 per cent).

This will significantly undermine efforts to sustain testing and improved treatment literacy and adherence to drug regime and awareness campaigns that were at the forefront of the Aids fight in the 1990s to early 2000s. It will also starve essential investment needed for health workers, laboratory and diagnostics.

Even as scientists work day and night to get a vaccine that could halt the spread of HIV infections, the first line of defence against new infections - as the report by MSF shows- is what came to be known as the ABC of Aids -abstinence, being faithful to one sexual partner and using a condom.

To a large extent, this is something the individual, not the government, can regulate. Gains made in the fight against the HIV scourge must not be reversed. The world should rise up and fight it.