Ambassador SpeechesWelcome Remarks by U.S. Ambassador Katherine H. Canavan on Training Workshop for Journalists; Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at Maharaja Conference Center, Gaborone.November 6th,2007Dumela Bo-Mma le Bo-Rra, Today, on the day of this conference, an estimated 12,000 people worldwide will contract HIV. Ninety percent of them, or about 10,800 people, will not learn they are infected until full-blown AIDS hits them sometime around the year 2015. Until then, those people will unintentionally spread the virus that lies silently within them. I wish to welcome you today with this message, not to depress you, but to remind us all that the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa and worldwide is far from over. It is heartening that more than 2 million HIV-positive people worldwide are on lifesaving antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). We should feel proud that in Botswana, more than 90% of those people in immediate need of ARVs are receiving them. I know Americans are pleased to be able to support local HIV/AIDS initiatives in Botswana. Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or better known as PEPFAR, U.S. government support for Botswana’s comprehensive HIV/AIDS program has grown from $24 million (or P144 million) in 2004 to more than $76 million (or P471 million) in fiscal year 2007. We are currently planning for 2008, in which PEPFAR is expected to increase again over the previous year by some 22 percent. And the support from the U.S. and other partners has been well received and effective because it is integrated into Botswana’s program. His Excellency and the Government of Botswana have provided inspiring leadership in this nation's fight against HIV/AIDS. Botswana is a global leader in the global fight: a model of commitment in the prevention, care and treatment of the disease. An example of Botswana’s bold leadership is in the introduction of Routine HIV Testing. Around 50 percent of the adult population now know their status and have accessed counseling and testing services from either routine or voluntary points of service. That’s far above and beyond what other African and Western countries have achieved. But testing and counseling are key to prevention and are a continuing focus of Botswana’s program. Perhaps one of the finest examples of Botswana’s success has been the Prevention of Mother-To-Child-Transmission Program or P-M-T-C-T).Thanks to Routine Testing, more than 90 percent of pregnant women who are HIV positive are enrolling in P-M-T-C-T. And Botswana has reduced the rate of HIV transmission from mother to child to less than 4 percent. Despite the great progress made in Botswana and elsewhere, the number of people infected with HIV each day still far outpaces the number of people going on treatment each day. One of the directors of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, who was speaking at an international conference in July, said that for every one person that you put in therapy, six new people get infected. Clearly, prevention must be addressed in a very forceful way. One of the themes of today’s conference is “Prevention.” Focusing on treatment alone will not help us succeed. Treatment is obviously important because it helps keep those already infected alive, but the only way to reverse the spread of HIV is to focus on prevention. I have heard it put this way: Picture a water tap running and flooding the floor. Instead of struggling to mop the floor, shouldn’t we first try to turn off the tap? A viable prevention strategy will encompass education and counseling, free condoms, female empowerment, more male circumcision, other biomedical options and abstinence. The U.S. Government is supporting a range of new and exciting prevention measures in Botswana that we hope will help in turning off that tap. We are also proud to support the new Life Skills Curriculum materials being rolled out to schools by the Ministry of Education with hopes of empowering young people to protect themselves. A small group of U.S. Peace Corps volunteers is helping train educators in the use of those materials. With recent research showing that safe male circumcision can reduce a man’s risk of acquiring HIV by more than 50 percent, the U.S. Government through PEPFAR is supporting a Botswana-Harvard Partnership project in 2008 to expand infant male circumcision in health care settings for HIV prevention.
Meanwhile, researchers at BOTUSA, the partnership between Botswana and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are hard at work on a clinical trial called TDF-2 which is a study to determine if a once-daily pill can actually prevent HIV transmission in sexually active young adults. Another one of today’s themes is Leadership. I am honored to be standing alongside His Excellency the President of Botswana, who has shown incredible leadership by testing himself for HIV. In my role as Ambassador, I am very much interested in HIV testing as a gateway to prevention. One of my initiatives as Ambassador has been the Zebras for Life—Test For Life campaign, in which members of the Zebras national football team are recruited to travel the country and encourage men and out of school youth to test for HIV. This program was the brainchild of Peace Corps volunteers who have witnessed firsthand the gaps in testing these at-risk groups. So far this year, at 43 events in 33 different locations, the Zebras for Life—Test for Life campaign has empowered 4,090 people to know their HIV status. Moreover, 58 percent of those testing were men, up 10 percent compared to regular efforts. Here is my challenge to the leaders here today and the journalists covering them: This year, on World AIDS Day, we should remind the country and ourselves that the struggle against HIV/AIDS is far from over. We should advocate strategies that emphasize prevention and detection. It is my sincere hope that each participant in this workshop will learn something new over the next two days and leave here with a renewed sense of excitement and urgency about our roles in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Let us re-dedicate ourselves to making a difference. Working together, everything is possible.
Thank You. Ke a leboga.
|
|
