Participants at the HIV-Free dual event in Buea
By Andrew Nsoseka
The CDC/PEPFAR sponsored HIV-free Project implemented in Cameroon’s Northwest, Southwest, Littoral and West regions, as a Zone, by the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board, CBCHB, on October 11, 2024, held a dual event to mark the end of the phase started from 2019 -2024, and as well launch a new phase set to run to 2029.
At the event in Buea, for the Southwest region, it was revealed that the project has recorded tremendous successes in screening, putting positive cases on treatment and curbing the HIV prevalent rate.
During the event, the Southwest project team shared and discussed with key stakeholders and the public at large the significant progress that has been made between 2019 and 2024 in the fight against HIV and AIDS in the region.
In Buea, the team presented the project activities and obtained results from October 2019, to September 2024. According to the project facts sheet, the CBCHB and partners achieved an implementation rate of over 98 percent of planned activities and about 99 percent in terms of the relevance of interventions as per the assessment made by health personnel, and stakeholders and with respect to national plans and protocols. Stakeholders in the Southwest revealed that over 38,000 were tested positive and a majority of them put on treatment.
The project team stated that the project’s impact can be felt as “the reducing cases in communities could be associated with the increasing viral load suppression rate, hence reduced HIV transmission”.
It further revealed that, “Overall, there was an improved system for HIV disease surveillance with the DAMA software and increased capacity for the health system in the target regions to provide optimal quality of HIV and AIDS services. The prospects of an HIV-free Generation are becoming real each day as significant milestones are reached with each new project cycle taking the Zone closer to epidemic control”.
It was also stated that the new phase of the project is intended for the “CBCHB to Support the government in consolidating and sustaining the gains from the CDC/PEPFAR funding which started in 2011, through a strategic mix package of technical assistance and Direct Service Delivery (DSD) services at regional, district and in the 94 PEPFAR Supported sites within the Zone. The ultimate purpose of this new funding phase is to support the regions attain HIV epidemic control by 2030 in alignment with the UNAIDS global agenda for the fight against HIV and AIDS.”
The event in Buea was presided at by the Southwest Regional Delegate for Public Health, Dr Filbert Eko Eko, alongside Prof. Tih Pius, who is the project’s lead investigator. There was also the Director of CBC Health Services, Ngu Samuel, and the Technical Director of HIV-Free project, Dr Kum Walters.
CDC/PEPFAR seeks to expand access to comprehensive, high quality and sustainable HIV/AIDS and TB prevention, care, and treatment services to meet the UNAIDS treatment targets of 95-95-95 by 2030 and achieve epidemic control across all sub-populations. Dr Eko Eko explained the targets saying the goal is to have 95 percent of all cases in the community tested, 95 percent of all positive cases put on treatment, and 95 percent of those on treatment having their viral load levels reduced to undetectable levels, and thus break the HIV-AIDS transmission chain.
The new Director of CBC Health Services, Ngu Samuel at the end of the dual event, remarked, “We are very happy as CBC Health Services to have gone this far, to have contributed as a major partner to the Ministry of Public Health and the government of Cameroon to have these achievements, and we are also proud that our communities can be healthy at this time”, he said, noting that the success would not have been imagined many years back when HIV was still a very stigmatised disease and frightful.”
