Several testimonies show the positive effect of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) on the health of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). They give hope that the pandemic will be eradicated in Rwanda within a few years.
Emile Habinshuti is a 73 kg man. When he started taking ARVs in 2003, he weighed only 45 kg. He saw death hovering around him at the University Hospital Centre of Kigali (CHUK) between 2001 and 2002.
“In 2001, I was hospitalised in ward 4, which was only reserved for HIV-positive patients at the time. The time it took to blink, a patient lost his life,” he recalls his bad memories of “the room of death.”
Today he can boast that he is doing well thanks to ARVs. “When you take ARVs as prescribed, you are in good health,” says Emile Habinshuti. “You can go about your business like everyone else,” adds Emile.
Charlène Byukusenge is a young girl who was born HIV-positive. She has completed her technical college studies in electricity. She shows no outward signs of weakness. “I do work that requires physical effort every day,” she says. “I climb utility poles,” she says. Her only secret: discipline in taking ARVs.
Beating HIV/AIDS, an achievable dream
According to Dr Janvier Serumondo, head of the hepatitis-HIV/AIDS division at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), the country’s ambition is to defeat the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by 2030.
“In 2030, we have to reach the 95-95-95 targets in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” he says confidently.
95% of people living with HIV/AIDS will be aware of their HIV status. 86% already know their status. 95% of infected people should have started taking antiretroviral drugs (ARVs). This target has already been reached, as the rate is 97%. For 95% of patients on ARVs, the virus will be undetectable. They will therefore not be able to spread it. The current rate is 90%.
There is no cure for the HIV/AIDS virus. There are no drugs to treat it. No vaccine to protect the population. ARVs are to be taken for life. Stopping them causes HIV to return to the bloodstream. This implies a disruption of health.
Some challenges for the success of the 95-95-95 triple objective
According to Dr Rodrigue Nze Eyo’o, Strategic Information Advisor at UNAIDS in Kigali, good health for all is vital if we are to defeat HIV/AIDS.
“The success of the new global strategy to fight HIV/AIDS requires putting people at the centre,” he says.
Some young girls and women turn to prostitution in search of income to survive. In Kigali they are the most numerous. The infection rate among them is also the highest in the country. 35%.
“No particular measures have been taken to help prostitutes. They live illegally from sex,” says Espérance Nshutiraguma, deputy executive administrator of Nyarugenge district, in the City of Kigali.
Civil society is taking care of them. RRP+, a network of people living with HIV/AIDS, assists them. “RRP+ has visited us often. It has supported us in the creation of a cooperative,” says Cécile Mujawayezu, a former prostitute living with HIV/AIDS.
Sylvie Muneza, president of RRP+, asks all partners not to stop their support, especially in this period of covid-19.
Rwanda is in the midst of a three-month campaign in the fight against HIV/AIDS. It was launched on 1 December in Nyagatare district.
Gérard Rugambwa
