Government launches anti-HIV programme

The Cameroon government has unveiled a three-year programme against HIV-AIDS with the ultimate objective of lowering the national prevalence rate to under 10 percent, Health Minister Urbain Olanguema Awono has said. Drawn up by the National Committee against AIDS (Comite national de lutte contre le sida), the programme pays special attention to helping the youth who are the hardest hit in this central African country. "Our principal objective is to reverse the actual trend in the epidemic, reduce the prevalence rate to less than 10 percent, and reduce by at least 25 percent HIV's incidence rate among the youth, men and women by the year 2005," Awono said at the programme launch on Friday. Official statistics put the current prevalence rate at 11 percent. The anti-AIDS committee says 600 people are infected each day. At least 12 percent of 20-24-year-olds are HIV positive, while this figure stands at 10 percent for 25 to 29-year-olds. Emphasis will be placed on providing educational programmes that highlight all HIV-related issues: status testing, protection against the disease and the need to change risky sexual behavior. The role of sex plays in contracting the virus will be accentuated, as 90 percent of HIV infection occurs this way. The availability of anti-retroviral drugs and other medicines also constitute a focus of the three-year programme as the government hopes to build upon efforts it began months ago with the acquisition of cheaper drugs. Today in Cameroon, HIV patients can buy generic drugs for 22,000 CFA francs (about US $30), while the most expensive drug therapy has dropped from 375,000 francs to 68,000 francs (from $506 to $92). The authorities also plan to increase the availability of condoms, one way of reducing the chance of catching the AIDS virus. Counseling and psychological support, a neglected element in caring for HIV/AIDS victims and their families, constitutes the programme's third area of concentration. This effort will target the 1.5 million people who live with the virus, and their relatives. Several international organisations and UN agencies such as WHO and UNAIDS, including the EU and the French Cooperation Agency, have contributed to the government's 4.5-billion-franc ($6.1 million) effort against the pandemic.