Filed in by Emmanuel Degleh
Kakata, Margibi – About 43,200 people are living with HIV in Liberia, according to the National Aids Commission (NAC).
A recent report of the Commission says Montserrado, Margibi and Grand Bassa Counties account for approximately 50% of those living with HIV in the country.
HIV stands for human immunodeficiency virus. It is the virus that can lead to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, or AIDS, if not treated. Unlike some other viruses, the human body can’t get rid of HIV completely, even with treatment. So once infected with HIV, one may have it for life.
The virus attacks the body’s immune system, specifically the CD4 cells or T cells, which help the immune system fight off infections.
When untreated, HIV reduces the number of CD4 cells in the body, making the affected person more likely to get other infections or infection-related cancers.
Over time, HIV can destroy so many of these cells that the body can’t fight off infections and disease. These opportunistic infections or cancers take advantage of a very weak immune system and signal that the person has AIDS, the last stage of HIV infection.
No effective cure currently exists for HIV, but with proper medical care, the virus can be controlled. The medicine used to treat HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or ART. If taken the right way, every day, ART can dramatically prolong the lives of many people infected with HIV, keep them healthy, and greatly lower their chance of infecting others.
Prior to the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS in just a few years. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can live nearly as long as someone who does not have HIV.
Meanwhile, in an effort to combat the growing HIV infection in Margibi County, the National Aids Commissioner in partnership with the county’s health team has ended a week-long training of 45 peer’s educators, mostly adolescents, who got trained to conduct one-on-one community awareness aimed at encouraging locals in that part of the country to get tested.
The peer’s educators are expected to serve as messengers to encourage residents of Margibi especial young people, about the significance of being tested.
If tested negative, the peer’s educators will then be tasked with the responsibility to educating such individuals to jealously protect their negative status, and whereas, if tested positive of HIV, such persons can seek early treatment and care before their condition deteriorates.
Statistics from Margibi County Health Team reveals that about 4,097 people are living with HIV in the county, 462 of those living with HIV know their status and 377 of them who know their positive status are on treatment while 3,635 of such individuals do not know their status and might be unknowingly infecting others.
In a word of caution to the peer’s educators, Margibi County Health Officer, Dr. Myers Pajibo said the job peer’s educators is not just to raise awareness about the virus but to also encourage people to get tested and know their status, which he said will be a better way to combat the fight against HIV in the county and nationwide as well.
“Sometimes you have to talk to someone over and over not just telling them about HIV but to do their test and know their status” Dr. Pajibo noted.
For her part, National Aids Commission deputy commission for decentralization, Theodosia Kollie said training young people to engage their peers was an important way to fight the spread of HIV as teenagers were amongst the most susceptible to being infected by the virus.
The National Aids Commission is doing everything aimed at ensuring Liberia meets the global target that proposes to have at least 90 percent of all people living with HIV diagnosed, at least 90 percent of those carrying the virus have access to antiretroviral therapy and at to have least 90 percent of the virus load suppressed by 2020.
Achieving the “90-90-90 Target” by 2020 would lead to a 90 percent reduction in HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality and a 90 percent decrease in new HIV infections by 2030.
