‘Breathtaking results’: Botswana hits UNAIDS 95-95-95 HIV targets
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Botswana has achieved the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets for people with HIV, according to data presented at the International AIDS Conference.
Madisa Ontiretse Mine, PhD, laboratory director at the Botswana Ministry of Health, noted during the meeting that Botswana is one of the countries most affected by HIV.
To help combat the epidemic, Botswana in 2002 became the first African country to offer free HIV treatment to citizens and has since expanded treatment coverage and adopted other evidence-based practices.
More recently, health officials in Bostwana began to measure their national progress toward the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets, which are that 95% of people with HIV know they have HIV, 95% of those people are on treatment and 95% of those on treatment are virally suppressed.
Mine presented results from the Fifth Botswana HIV/AIDS Impact Survey, which included a nationally representative sample of 14,763 adults aged 15 to 64 years from March to August 2021. Participants were surveyed in their households, administered questionnaires and were tested for HIV, viral load and the presence of antiretrovirals.
Overall, the survey found that the national HIV prevalence was 20.8%. Among all people with HIV surveyed, 95.1% were aware of their status and 98% of those people were on ART. Of those on ART, 97.9% achieved viral load suppression.
After assessing the data further, Mine and colleagues found that, specifically, men in Botswana have achieved the second and third goals (97.2% and 96.6%) and surpassed 90% for the first (93%).
“These are really breathtaking results that show us what evidence-based policies can deliver, even in low-income settings,” Sharon Lewin, MBBS, PhD, president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said during a press briefing.
The team added, however, that gaps remain among younger adults in general, whose 95-95-95 progress stands at 84.5%, 98.5% and 91.6%, but particularly young women, who had some of the lowest percentages across all three goals (82.3%, 97.8% and 91.5%).
“Overall, Botswana has made tremendous progress in the past 20 years,” Mine said. “We strongly believe that we are well positioned to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030.”
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Mine M, et al. Abstract 12921. Presented at: International AIDS Conference; July 27-Aug. 2, 2022; Montreal (hybrid meeting).
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