The 90-90-90 approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS though ambitious is achievable with clear indications that by 2020 the target would be met.
The 90-90-90 approach seeks to have 90 percent of all people living with HIV to know their status, 90 percent of them with diagnosed HIV status receiving sustained antiretroviral therapy while 90 percent of people receiving antiretroviral therapy will achieve viral suppression.
According to a recent document by UAIDS, an agency of the United Nations committed to the fight against HIV/AIDS, in many countries where rapid programmes has been made in expanding access to HIV treatment, there is a renewed hope that the target could be achieved even faster.
It noted that in sub Saharan Africa home to more than 69 percent of all people living with HIV, many countries are already on track to 90-90-90.
“Botswana is set to achieve 90–90–90 by 2020, with 70.2% of people living with HIV from a large sample of people living in rural and semi urban areas having already achieved viral suppression In Rwanda, 86% of people living with HIV knew their HIV status in 2013, 63% were receiving antiretroviral therapy, and 82% of HIV treatment patients were virally suppressed,’’ it said.
Noting that bold targets drive progress, UNAIDS pointed out that setting bold targets, uniting diverse stakeholders and using ongoing closer to real time monitoring had had transformative results.
“The global push to expand HIV treatment access began with the “3 by 5”initiative, and the use of bold targets was furtherreflected in the successful global effort to reach at least 15 million people with HIV treatment by 2015,” it said.
According to UNAIDS, every time the world has set bold targets, sceptics have doubted their feasibility, but the AIDS response has repeatedly proved the sceptics wrong adding that the “90–90–90 agenda is premised on the same conviction that the world has the means, yet again, to achieve bold, ambitious targets in the face of doubts.”
ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK
