Africa-Press – Lesotho. The National Aids Commission (NAC) has revealed its commitment of ending AIDS by 2030 by working in concert with its partners – President’s Emergency Plan for
AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), Lesotho Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (LePHIA) and the Ministry of Health (MoH). This will be another milestone following the achievement
of the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 targets that Lesotho surpassed by achieving 90-97-92. The 90-90-90 targets mean that out of the people interviewed 90 per cent
know their status, 90 are on their medication and 90 have their viral load suppressed. During the National HIV & AIDS Strategic Plan 2018/19- 2022/23 mid-term review, MoH HIV/AIDS Manager Dr Tapiwa
Tarumbiswa reported that Lesotho has significantly reduced new HIV infections and AIDS related deaths and improved community viral load suppression. “HIV
prevalence is significantly higher among women than men, key population shoulder a significant burden of the disease, and most of the social epidemic drivers have not yet been addressed,” he indicated.
Tarumbiswa stated that the HIV epidemic in Lesotho is generalized and hyperemic. “HIV prevalence among adults (15years) in Lesotho was 22.7% which corresponds to approximately 324,000 adults living with
HIV. HIV prevalence was higher among women 27.4% than among men, annual incidences of HIV among adults in Lesotho were 0.45% which corresponds to approximately 5,000 new cases of HIV per year.
HIV incidences were disproportionately higher (0.64%) among women and (0.28%) among men. The epidemic drivers are poverty, migration (mobile population), multiple
concurrent sexual partners, sexual violence, intergenerational sexual relationships and comprehensive knowledge of HIV transmission and prevention,” he informed.
Speaking on behalf of the Government Secretary, ‘Mantsenki Mphalana stated that Lesotho is committed to ending AIDS by 2030, and for her to achieve this goal the National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan 2018/19-
2022/23 was developed through consultative processes in 2018. The strategic plan was developed at the time the government of Lesotho and the world at large
had committed to fast track the HIV response with the ambitious goal to ending AIDS by 2030 and achieving related UNAIDS global target of 90-90-90. She indicated that the Lesotho
Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (LePHIA) 2020 results indicated that Lesotho is indeed on the right track having achieved 90-97-92 with few gaps to attend
to hence the need for reflections and repositioning. On the other hand, Local NAC Consultants Relebohile Tšehlo highligted that the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS) fast-track targets set the 90-90-90 targets with the aim that by 2020,
90% of all people living with HIV would know their HIV status; 90% of all people with diagnosed HIV infection would receive sustained Antiretroviral
Therapy (ART); and 90% of all people receiving ART would be virally suppressed. “People diagnosed in Lesotho, 90.1% of adults (15 years and older) living with HIV were aware of their HIV
status, that is 91.4% of women and 88.1% of men. Individuals were classified as aware if they reported their HIV-positive status or had a detectable antiretroviral
(ARV) in their blood,” he stated. He said for those on treatmentamong adults
living with HIV who were aware of their status, 96.9% were on ART, being 97.5% of women and 95.8% of men. Individuals were classified as being on ART if they
reported current ART use or had a detectable ARV in their blood and those on Viral Load Suppressionamong adults who were on ART, 91.5% had VLS equivalent to an overall community viral
suppression rate of 80%. “The Lesotho NAC Strategic Plan 2018/19 – 2022/23 has three goals which are to reduce new HIV infections by at least 50% from 13,300 in 2017, to reduce AIDS-related deaths by 50% from 4,900
in 2017, mother-to-child transmission of HIV eliminated from 11.3% to less than 5% by 2023. In order to attain those goals, NAC envisioned achieving eight key program results through various evidence-based high-impact strategies and interventions,” Tšehlo explained.
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