Health

Liberia’s Future And How To Protect It Yes AIDS is real

The fight against the rapid spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic is crucial to human development and economic growth. A UNAIDS report indicated that, by 2025, AIDS will threaten the lives of 80 million Africans.

UNAIDS chief Peter Piot, however, told Plus News that the future of the epidemic depends on our actions today.

Mr. John Teayah, an associate of Better Future surveys the following:

From our research and investigation, it is established that the National AIDS Control Program (NACP) is the only authorized government institution responsible for conducting epidemiological surveillance and or survey on HIV/AIDS and STDs in Liberia by collecting and analyzing HIV test reports from different health centers around the country. Therefore, all other institutions, agencies, and organizations concerned with HIV/AIDS status in Liberia rely on the NACP for their funding.

The following is the presentation of HIV tests reports from different health centers around the nation analyzed by the NACP.

NACP reports showed that from 1986 to 1999, a total population of 19,782 was tested for HIV, and of these, 897 cases were HIV positive.

The below chart shows the totals of the HIV test performed and their results from 2000 to 2004
No.	Year	Number tested	Positive cases	Prevalence rate (%)
1.	2000	4,529	304	6.7%
2.	2001	12,017	969	8.1%
3.	2002	15,375	1,198	7.8%
4.	2003	12,548	1,189	9.5%
5.	2004	3,830	388	10.1%
Total		48,299	4,048	8.38%

The above chart shows that a total population of 48,299 was tested for HIV between 2000 and 2004, and 4,048 cases were HIV positive. The chart also shows the prevalent rate of 8.38% for the same period. Also according to the NACP’s HIV test reports between 1986 and 2004, 68,081 people were tested, and 4,987 of these tested HIV positive. These HIV test reports from various health centers to NACP, and analyzed by NACP experts, were obtained from the following category of clients/patients: 1. visa applicants, 2. antenatal, 3. blood donors, 4. in patients, 5. out patients, 6. TB patients, 7. volunteers, and 8. others.

Regrettably, NACP has no mechanism to determine the actual number of deaths resulting form HIV/AIDS related diseases in Liberia. As a result, NACP reports on the status of HIV/AIDS in Liberia up to the present do not include the number of deaths. We insisted to know the number of deaths resulting from HIV/AIDS related diseases, but they regretted not having such data on Liberia, because of the problem of stigmatization. However, the NACP section responsible for counseling people living with AIDS in Liberia reported that 1,043 persons presently live with AIDS in the country. These people, according to them, have been clinically diagnosed and confirmed to have AIDS.

Also, an analysis of the NACP HIV test report for 2003 shows that women are the most affected of the total population tested.

Number tested	Number. of Men tested	No. of Men HIV+	Number. of Women tested	Number of Females HIV+
12,548	6,387	492	6,161	697
The foregoing HIV test reports obtained form NACP are our only official source of information on the current HIV/AIDS status in Liberia.