Sierra Leone News: NAS dispels false HIV prevalence figures

Politics

NAS, the HIV/AIDS response secretariat, on Tuesday July 31 held a press briefing to dispel misinformation that is circulating around the media relating to false figures on the national HIV Sero-prevalence. “The Secretariat wants it to be known that these reports are not true and neither the Ministry of Health and Sanitation nor the Secretariat has at any time released or provided such figure about HIV and Aids to that magnitude to any media house or practitioner whatsoever” it says. The National HIV/AIDS Secretariat (NAS) debunked one widely circulated rumour. The reports which is said to be purporting that there are 1.5 million people living with the virus in Sierra Leone. However, the Secretariat still stand by the national HIV prevalence statistics of 1.5 percent from the last Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2013 by Statistics Sierra Leone. This population-based study is conducted every five years. This rumour started when the UNAIDS projected estimates were released which was said to have been derived by modelling stating that 61,000 people are living with HIV in Sierra Leone. “Not all of these have been practically tested and found positive” said Dr. Momodu Sesay. NAS Director General, Dr. Sesay added that there are 26,000 people currently receiving antiretroviral therapy in Sierra Leone, “we are not complacent with the result as it stands, it is however not in the interest of anyone to give false, unfounded, distorting and alarming figures about the epidemic in the country” he said. This the Secretariat says has the tendency to create unnecessary panic among the population, making it even more challenging to coordinate the response, as they are putting all efforts towards the prevention, treatment and mitigation of its impact on the citizens. These projected estimates are said to be generated every year where countries are invited to workshops where estimates of each country are calculated. These estimates are based on the country’s population, prevalence and other parameters which are fed into a system and estimates are generated. “These figures that we obtain from our clinics are put into a software called Spectrum which is operated by UNAIDS, it cuts across every country, and it generates, confirms and publishes its estimates worldwide” said Dr. Sesay. Next year’s estimates will change based on the population and the program data that will feed into the Spectrum. The activities of HIV/AIDS transmission they say depends on the activities that the people propagate, and if they fail to use condom, adhere to the messages then definitely the figures are expected not to remain the same. The Secretariat says they have drugs to maintain 26,000 on treatment, tested close to one million people, and the DHS 2013 awareness level is over 85 percent, and that the only problem is translating the awareness into a positive behavior. They have dividends from the interventions by increasing the number of sites to five facilities at least in every district, they also expanded in scope and trained people to provide services, “we still don’t have a cure, we will continue to test but we have issues of stigma” said Dr Sesay. The response he agrees has reached a paradigm shift with a change in the face of the epidemic phase in Sierra Leone to a concentrated nature, which he says if not handled well it will be difficult for them to win the fight. “Every population with high prevalence rate is a concern to us, commercial sex workers, men having sex with men, people using injectable, transgender amongst others” he said. “Let us don’t shy away from that, we have done studies so we have the numbers, we know the prevalence rate. We are going to use a public health approach and not looking at moral issues.” The Secretariat stated ART in 2005 with 285 people and by 2014 it grew to 10,289 persons and now is 26,000, “we are trying to outpace the epidemic as treatment is prevention” Dr Sesay noted. Note: The Secretariat will request every Sierra Leonean to help prevent the spread of HIV by: *Going for free HIV test *Spreading correct information about HIV *Using condoms correctly and consistently *Taking your ARVs regularly if infected *Stopping stigmatization of People living with HIV www.nas.gov.sl By Zainab Iyamide Joaque Tuesday August 01, 2018.

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