| HIV prevalence high amid rise in funding | Send to a friend |
| Monday, 28 June 2010 23:07 |
 By Ray Naluyaga, MwanzaThe amount of money spent on HIV/Aids control in the country rose by over 2,000 per cent in six years, from 2001 to 2007. Speaking as the chief guest to mark the opening of a three-day seminar on HIV/Aids policy review here yesterday, the Mwanza regional commissioner, Mr Abbas Kandoro, said in 2001 the Tanzania Commission for Aids (Tacaids) was allocated a budget of Sh17 billion. However, by 2007 the budget, which was heavily donor funded, had reached over Sh381 billion, he said. Encouragingly, during the same period the overall adult prevalence rate fell by about one per cent, from 6.7 to 5.7 per cent, he explained. Further, the male prevalence rate fell from six to five per cent and that of women from eight to seven per cent, he said, lamenting, however: “Some of the biggest challenges in the fight against HIV/Aids are embezzlement and mismanagement of funds.” He warned delegates from six lake zone regions that the continued tradition of frequently holding seminars and workshops, which are never held without dishing out allowances, will never see HIV/Aids eradicated. “There are seminars and workshops on HIV/Aids everyday; unfortunately my experience since I started to participate in HIV/Aids activities as a leader, shows that the participants are the same faces appearing in different forums at different places throughout the country,” he told participants. He noted that while the budget has been increasing, the HIV/Aids prevalence rate at municipal and village levels continued to grow instead of declining. This is because it is impossible to do anything without first guaranteeing leaders and other stakeholders the availability of allowances, he noted. He said the issue of allowances is the biggest challenge in the fight against the disease. According to him, it was the reason that made leaders boycott meetings supposed to come up with very important decisions on HIV/Aids related and other developmental issues. Tanzania is among major beneficiaries of the Global Fund on Aids. According to the Tacaids 2007 annual report, the country received nine grants totalling $400 million out of the requested $503 million between 2001 and 2007. Speaking to The Citizen on the sidelines of the workshop, the Tacaids director for Advocacy, Information and Communication, Mr Geoffrey Majengo, said the amount stipulated by Mr Kandoro has been used to cover a variety of areas. He mentioned them as including care and treatment, Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) as well as capacity building of medical doctors and other stakeholders. He said despite the government’s response to HIV/Aids through measures implemented by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare from 1986, it later became apparent that the disease was not adequately addressed. “This is so because through the National Aids Control Programme, HIV/Aids was addressed by focusing largely on the health sector while it is not simply a health problem,” he said. Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
