UN demands for more to help African women access HIV treatment

LUSAKA: A senior United Nations (UN) official said here Monday that more needs to be done to ensure that women and girls across sub-Saharan Africa access comprehensive HIV prevention, care and support.

UN Secretary General's Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka said in her message ahead of the World AIDS Day which falls on December 1 that though the African continent accounted for three quarters of women living with the HIV virus, only a small percentage of them were accessing treatment.

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"In 2008, sub-Saharan Africa accounted for 91 percent (of the 1.4 million) pregnant women living with HIV worldwide; and a further 61 percent of people living with HIV on the continent. Yet, only 44 percent of the people living with HIV in Africa are able to access antiretroviral treatment, and less than half of HIV positive pregnant women in Africa are receiving medicines to prevent their children from becoming HIV infected," Mataka said.

Mataka, who is executive director of the Zambia National AIDS Network (ZNAN), a local organization involved in fighting HIV/AIDS, said long-term sustainable programs addressing reasons why women and girls were more vulnerable to HIV infection were needed.

She said the programs should be based on quality evidence and should be grounded in human rights principles, which empower men, women and girls to claim their rights and for governments to protect and ensure that the rights are realized.

"Indeed, how can we ever reach universal access when there is a debasement of others, infringement of rights, when people are not even aware that by simply being born, being human, they too should have access to these fundamental rights," Mataka said.

She further said that globally, there was an urgent need to ensure that women's fundamental rights to health were attained.

This year's World AIDS theme is: "Universal Access and Human Rights" and the UN envoy said the theme re-affirms commitments by governments in supporting women and girls across the continent in living lives of dignity.