Visiting US health expert lauds Cameroon’s HIV prevention efforts

Cameroon has recorded great strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS for the past few years, says Dr. John N Nkengasong, a US-based health expert and Director of the US President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), who was in the country last week on a five-day HIV evaluation visit.

During the visit that stretched from September 5 to 9, Dr. Nkengasong, who is the USA’s Ambassador-at-large, held audiences with the Prime Minister, the Minister of Public Health, the Secretary General at the Presidency, and the Minister of External Relations.

He also visited the National Public Health Laboratory, the Etoug-Ebe Hospital in Yaounde, and the University of Yaounde I to discuss the progress made by the Cameroon and US governments on ending HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. He outlined the enormous financial contributions of the US Government to stemming HIV/AIDS in Cameroon.

“Cameroon has made a lot of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We have seen how the rate of new infections has decreased over the years, but we now know that we have a big challenge, which is the high rates of new infections among adolescent girls as a whole,” he said.

The HIV/AIDS prevalence rate in Cameroon stood at 2.9 percent for people aged 15–49 in 2021. The infection rate dropped from 4.9 percent in 2004 to 2.9 percent in 2021, according to data published by the World Bank.

Dr. Nkengasong said the US Government, through PEPFAR, has supported the Cameroonian government with several billions of francs since 2009 to fight against the disease. The program’s annual budget for Cameroon now stands at $26 million (approximately FCFA 15.9 billion).

Dr. Nkengasong said PEPFAR has helped all categories of people, especially women, by providing them a safe space to discuss issues related to HIV as well as prevention services for the disease.

“We’ll not defeat HIV/AIDS without a full, comprehensive program for prevention among women,” Dr. Nkengasong said.

High HIV Prevalence Among Adolescents

Despite the progress made so far in HIV prevention in Cameroon, Dr Nkemngong Nkengasong said Cameroon still has a long way to go in curbing the spread of HIV among its young people.

He said about 60 percent of all new HIV infections are being registered among young people, particularly adolescents.

“HIV/AIDS remains a great danger, especially among young people. We find that approximately 60 percent of new HIV infections are in young people. So, we must at all costs strengthen our efforts in favour of this segment of the population and eliminate HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by 2030,” he said.

“HIV/AIDS is not over. It still remains a serious threat, especially to the young people in Cameroon. So, we reviewed all these areas and agreed to continue to work closely.”

Approximately 500,000 people in Cameroon aged between 15-64 years live with HIV, according to the data published by the Cameroon Population-based Impact Assessment published in July 2018.

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