Africa-Press – South-Sudan. BY Emelda Siama John
Over 180,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in South Sudan and out of that, 100,000 are women and young girls, because of some consequences like rape, 70,000 plus are men, and almost close to 9,000 out of 180,000 are children infected by HIV/AIDS. South Sudan projects an estimate that, in 2020 to 2021, the country was having 180,000 people who were infected with HIV/AIDS.
Speaking during the contact sensitization workshop on HIV/AIDS organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with JICA, the Director-General for program coordination south Sudan HIV/AIDS commission Dr. Marial Cuir Khoc said that the sensitization workshop on HIV/ AIDS aimed to equip the participants with adequate knowledge to prevent HIV /AIDs and subsequently will definitely reduce AIDS.
HIV intervention is not an activity that is implemented by HIV Commission alone and the Ministry of health but it’s the responsibility of all the Ministries.
“We are aware that globally more than a 37million people are affected by HIV/AIDS and out of these 18million or more are women and venerable people, among these 18million there’re consequences that put these venerable group at risk, as well we have children who are infected by HIV/AIDS every year, we need to protect them, we have the youth and young women, we need to protect them and the only way is to increase the awareness,” Cuir said.
He stated that in South Sudan based on the estimate of 2021, they have over 180,000 people who are living with HIV/AIDS virus and out of these, over 100,000 are women. They are the most affected population, and those affected populations are at high risk because of stigma and discrimination.
“It’s our roles and duties to join hand and try to reduce the stigma and discrimination among those who are affected by HIV/AIDS,” he said.
He revealed that south Sudan HIV commission with support from JICA and other departments are trying to move forward to see that the number of people who are affected by HIV/AIDS in the country is reduced.
“We are aware that HIV commission being supported by rural Bank through UNDIP and the money is to statute many activities and many workshops, and we have engaged most of the states in the country to conduct awareness and workshop in regards with reeducation of stigma and discrimination,” he said.
He further noted that they have been trying with civil society organizations to work together in fighting the human right violation that are related to HIV/AIDS to reduce the virus.
“The history of south Sudan started with a low HIV intervention percentage, but now by 2030, South Sudan will be free from HIV/AIDS,” he added.
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