Free testing being offered in Savannah for World AIDS Day

“This requires that we reach the most vulnerable communities – the young women in Sub-Saharan Africa, people who inject drugs, gay men and other men who have sex with men, and the poor who need services and care”, he said.

Minister for Health Gagan Thapa said at the ceremony that the estimated new HIV infection in 2015 is 1,331 in Nepal, while the average number of new infections per day stands at four. The much bigger risk of transmission is from people who have no idea they are living with the virus so may be unwittingly passing it on.

The day was first dreamt up in 1987 by James Bunn and Thomas Netter, two public information officers for the UN Programme on AIDS and was formally recognised by the organisation the following year. “We now call on countries’ leaders to use this plan for an urgent, accelerated and innovative response to HIV in the Region, to reverse the AIDS epidemics immediately and end it by 2030”.

“We know that for girls in sub-Saharan Africa, the transition to adulthood is a particularly unsafe time”.

AIDS related deaths have dropped by a massive 42 percent since 2004 according The United Nations. Each year on this day people show their support for those living with HIV and they remember those who have died.

“We know that for girls in sub-Saharan Africa, the transition to adulthood is a particularly risky time. We must all get tested for us to have an HIV free generation”, she said, speaking at a gathering earlier this week. But while the treatment and that people can live a long life has changed, we still often mistreat, abuse and neglect people with HIV.

So we know that the challenge is huge, and we know that we can not hope to make progress without the help of healthcare workers such as pharmacists and their colleagues.

“Finally, we all have a responsibility to do what we can to remove stigma and discrimination around HIV”. Those infected with HIV in the 1980s were given an average life expectancy of six months to a year.