HIV-AIDS: one medicine can cure the epidemic

The difference between the 9th and 10th symposium on HIV-AIDS is that the World Health Organization (WHO), researchers from the Indian Ocean and other researchers maintain that from now on, there would be a cure for HIV-AIDS in the years to come. However, there must be a need to target the HIV-AIDS positive people to better work towards that direction.

Professor Willy Rozenbaum, the co-discoverer of the HIV virus thirty years ago, said yesterday at a press conference that the means are already available to fight against the spread of this epidemic. Rozenbaum estimates that more than twenty thousand infected individuals are still circulating all over Madagascar while the official figures show only one thousand individuals, 500 of whom are being supported through antiretroviral therapy session.

Thus, half of the people undergoing HIV-AIDS test, most of whom are proved to be positive, disappear without leaving any traces. But the problem mainly concerns the cases of the 19 000 individuals estimated to be infected with HIV. Indeed, the latter that are neither listed nor identified represent real dangers that could exacerbate the spread of the epidemic in Madagascar.

The closing ceremony of the symposium which took place yesterday at the CCI Ivato was marked by the presence of several high officials, including the Minister of Public Health.