BY FIONA MOTSA
MBABANE– The fight against HIV/AIDS in the country is still on.
Yesterday, the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office met with different organizations at the Hilton Garden Inn to come up with transformative interventions and solutions to end HIV/AIDS virus.
Government has released funds for this project. This was revealed by Senior Gender specialist Nomzamo Dlamini. The exact amount of the funds was not disclosed.
“Women and adolescent girls are the most affected by HIV/ AIDS. This is according to the statistics we receive from NERCHA which reveal that women are more prone to the virus.
“This is the reason our Government found it within good reason to give us funds to work on finding causes and solutions to end the high infection rates,” said Dlamini.
Executive Director at National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) Khanya Mabuza revealed that the leading cause of so many infections is caused by older men and women who take advantage of adolescent youth using finances.
“The leading cause of the high infection rates according to our research is caused economic factors like finances. Older men and women take advantage of the youth by offering them money in exchange for sexual relations.
“The youth have found themselves between a rock and a hard place and what is worse they get infected with the virus,” said Mabuza.
Country Director (Eswatini) UNAIDS Rose Craigue revealed that the country was seeing a rise in new infections every year.
“We are seeing an alarming rate of new infections as we get 4 000 new infections yearly. This is why the gender assessment we are currently doing is extremely important.
“The different organizations have joined the bandwagon and are all working together using data that has been collected over the years to find a way to fight the virus.”
Courtesy pics of The Deputy Prime Minister’s Office Eswatini.
