By Andrew Magombo
Lilongwe, November 29, Mana: President Lazarus Chakwera will preside over the annual commemoration of World Aids Day and Joint Candle lighting day scheduled to take place on Tuesday, December 2, at Mitundu in Lilongwe.
This was announced by Minister of Health, Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, on Saturday, during a press briefing held at the Capital Hill.
The minister added that at the ceremony, all COVID-19 measures including: social distance, sanitizing hands and wearing masks, will be strictly adhered to.
Shedding light on the fight against HIV pandemic amidst COVID-19, Chiponda said government remains vigilant despite more focus being polarized towards the crisis which has claimed 185 lives to date.
She said: “We have to live with the fact that COVID-19 will be with us for a long while. It is a big challenge worldwide; however, this should not derail our focus on our works concerning HIV and AIDS.
“As a ministry, we try to balance our operations by continuing awareness campaigns nationwide because we keep losing productive citizens whose contribution to the socioeconomic status of Malawi would have made a difference if they were still with us.”
In addition, she bemoaned continued tendency of stigma in communities and work places. Owing to this background, she believes that the World Aids Day will propel their efforts to raise awareness that HIV and AIDS cannot be contracted through close physical contact like COVID-19.
Chiponda also expressed concern over rising statistics of local HIV new infections, 33 thousand annually, which she described as unfortunate considering that Malawi is vigorously working towards reducing the prevalence rate.
In his remarks, UNAIDS Country Director, Nuha Ceesay, recognized progress being made in the response against HIV and AIDS but conveyed dismay at the rapid rate of new infections globally currently at 26 million people.
He said: “We are worried about the new HIV infections because our target remains reducing the rate to 500 thousand infections globally. For Malawi, we are aiming for less than 11 thousand infections annually.
“We need to know our HIV pyramid which will help us determine our response effectively. This has to be a collective fight that is to say the media and civil societies should accelerate efforts by collaborating with the Malawi government.”
Currently, over 850 thousand Malawians are HIV positive.
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