WORLD AIDS DAY, 2021

END INEQUALITIES. END AIDS

World AIDS Day (WAD), December 1 of every year, is a globally recognized day dedicated to raising awareness for AIDS, a pandemic that has devastated the world for over 40 years and counting. HIV AIDS continues to be a major global public health issue that is of great concern to many developing countries. It has claimed 36.3 million lives so far.

As of 2020, an estimated 37.7 million people are currently living with HIV, two-thirds of which are living on the African continent. 40 years have passed since the discovery of the virus in 1982. Since then, Ethiopia has come a long way in controlling the pandemic through collaborative efforts between the government of Ethiopia, stakeholders working in the health sector, and people living with HIV.

The HIV/TB program at PSI-Ethiopia through its national flagship initiative the USAID MULU Key Populations Activity held a World AIDS Day commemoration at its community-based service delivery hubs/drop-in centers (DIC) in Addis Ababa. The MULU KP Activity commemorated the day at Bole and Yeka DICs celebrating Ethiopia’s HIV milestones and emphasizing the need to do more to eradicate HIV AIDS.

In the DICs, World AIDS day was celebrated with the beneficiaries of the program and a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Dr. Aster, a pioneer of the national HIV program, gave an introductory speech highlighting the devastating effects HIV has had, the way the national leadership has come to control the pandemic, and the long way we have yet to go to fully eradicate this disease.

The team held a panel discussion with MULU KP program experts, local partners leadership, healthcare workers, volunteers, and clients. The panel discussed why programming focuses on key populations activity and the work done by our local implementing partners, highlighting index case testing, partner notification services, and the range of clinical and social services provided at our drop-in centers.

The celebration continued with a fun and interactive Q&A session followed by various demonstration sessions that focused on HIV prevention activities, cervical cancer prevention, benefits of condoms and lubricants, a male condom demonstration, and an HIV self-testing demonstration.

Clients also shared their experience with the service utilization at the DICs and the friendliness of the health providers. Services at the DICs include behavioral peer (SBCC) sessions, condom and lubricant distribution, HIV testing and counseling, index case testing and partner notification services, HIV self-testing, anti-retroviral treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis as an HIV prevention option, other sexually transmitted disease diagnosis and treatment, short-term family planning services, cervical cancer prevention services and treatment, gender-based violence identification, and linkage/referral to other health facilities as required.

The USAID MULU Key Populations Activity (along with MOH/EPH, Local Implementing Partners (LIP), and other stakeholders) has taken the lead nationally in introducing new innovative HIV prevention and treatment technologies such as self-testing, oral pre-exposure prophylaxis, and community ART services. Currently, these services are under national scale-up supported by the data and evidence generated through the MULU KP program. This year the project will introduce an additional HIV prevention option for women, the Dipivefrine vaginal ring (DPV-VR). DPV-VR is a WHO-recommended, female-initiated option for HIV prevention.

The USAID MULU Key Population Activity stands in global solidarity with all stakeholders toward ending inequality, ending AIDS, and ending pandemics. In its fight against HIV/AIDS, USAID MULU Key Population Activity would like to recognize all its local implementing partners and staff, without whom the HIV successes realized today and the vision for HIV epidemic control would not have been possible.