The Ministry of Health has unveiled this year’s World AIDS Day race with a focus to sensitise men to go for HIV diagnosis and uptake of ARV medication with latest statistics painting a grim picture.

It has emerged that for those who succumb to HIV, men are many compared to women although the female gender takes a bigger portion of people living with the virus.

The National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC) is also concerned with the rising number of people injecting drugs, making a case for the increased HIV infections among members in this group.

“The worrying scenario is where these men are mostly identified at the TB-HIV screening clinics, meaning many of them could be unaware of their HIV status,” said Dr. Ruth Laibon Masha, the NSDCC Chief Executive Officer during the launch at the Council’s head office. The race is themed: A Race Against Time.

Men living with HIV
Data with the Council shows that men aged 30-59 years account for 64 percent of all men living with HIV.
“However, access to HIV diagnosis is low for men and boys as compared to women and girls,” said Dr Masha.

In 2022 for instance, 39 percent of males were diagnosed for HIV compared to 61 percent for women, an increase from 38 percent the year before against 62 percent women.

In 2020, the trend was similar with 34 percent of males accessing HIV diagnosis against 66 percent of women.

“The proportion of men and boys who access ARVs is lower than for women and girls with 95 percent registering in 2022 against 89 percent of women, while in 2021, there was 97 percent who did not access ARVs compared to 84 percent,” she noted. In the year 2020, 92 percent of males accessed ARVs as compared to 81 percent of women.

Dr Masha acknowledged the disproportionate number of AIDS-related deaths among men, citing a lack of education and early diagnoses as a key factor.