Senior US official impressed with HIV/AIDS response

Assistant US Global AIDS coordinator Mark Dybul, visiting Namibia this week, lauded the national response to HIV and AIDS. Namibia's current prevalence rate, estimated at 22 percent, makes it one of the five southern African countries most affected by the pandemic. In 2004 the government launched its Third Medium Term Plan (MTP III), which aims to reduce this figure by more than half by 2009. Despite MTP III facing a deficit in funding, with costs estimated at over N$3.7 billion (US $575 million), Dybul said the anti-AIDS programmes were well on track and an "impressive effort at work". At a meeting with AIDS NGOs and government officials in the capital, Windhoek, he highlighted the US $60 million pledged to Namibia under the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for 2004/05. Namibia is one of the priority countries to benefit from PEPFAR, a five-year $15 billion programme which funds HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and orphan and palliative care in 15 developing countries. "We work hand in hand with the country's national HIV/AIDS strategy to support laboratory services, logistics for distribution of pharmaceuticals and capacity building," Dybul told reporters. Noting its "excellent" HIV/AIDS strategy, the assistant AIDS coordinator also acknowledged the "capable institutions" working to combat the pandemic in Namibia.