Interviewed by Orock E. Eta
Prof. Angwafor III, Secretary General in the Ministry of Public Health, talked on HIV/AIDS and the Youths, recently at the HIV/AIDS Awareness Day organised by the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Buea, UB. The Prof. of Medicine and Bio-Medical Sciences encouraged the UB students and Cameroonians at large to; "Take the challenge of HIV/AIDS at heart. Take your lives into your hands and turn the tide."
The Post: What message did you bring to the students of UB?
Prof. Angwafor: Basically, we've four simple messages; everyone should know their serologic status, because we've an incidence of 5.5 percent in the country, people should not be afraid. That means 9 out of 10 people will be negative. And when you're negative, you're encouraged to stay negative.
And there are ways to do that. We need to prevent new infections. Because government has made treatment very cheap, it's important that even those who are positive come for follow-up and treatment. We now have treatment centres all over the country, with treatment packages. You can either have treatment for FCFA 3000 or 7000 at the most. Government is doing its all to decrease the overall package for diagnosis and treatment for the community.
Prevention, which has been talked about ceaselessly, be taken seriously. The A is Abstinence, B is Behaviour Change and C use of Condom if you must… call is for us to move from talk, information, to action. Our country can't develop if the life expectancy keeps dropping. This is a serious call.
You said the fight against HIV/AIDS is human resolve. What does that mean?
Every person should get serious. We talk a lot but we don't do what we know. People know that they should abstain, they know they need to change behaviour, they need to use condoms, but they don't do that.
As a health expert, what explains that attitude? Is there any sociological or scientific reason why people don't respond to the HIV/AIDS messages in particular?
That's when people are still looking into their identity. They have problems with themselves. It's our role, in the process of socialisation and brining up people to get them to be serious and responsible.
According to the demography of Cameroon, the Northern Provinces of the country are more populated. But the HIV/AIDS prevalence is rather high in the provinces that are not found in the north. How do you explain this dichotomy?
It's a question of people's attitude and practices.
So, you're saying the people of the northern provinces of Cameroon have less exposure risk?
AIDS comes out of sex and population comes with sex and safe sex can be without AIDS.
Despite several government strategies being put in place to combat HIV/AIDS, the prevalence rate rather increases every year. Are there some weaknesses in the strategies?
The weak link in the fight against AIDS is human behaviour. This is collective. The problem is not at the level of the programmes. The problem is; people have to be responsible.
What are some of the burdens of HIV/AIDS?
People die young, increased mortality from opportunistic infections, the number one being tuberculosis (TB) fungal infections, people have social problems since they're sick and tired, they're unable to work for a livelihood. So, the cycle of poverty is actually reinforced. Hence, you die prematurely. Largely, it leads to underdevelopment and loss of all the gains that society has made over the last 30-40 years.
Tell us more about the four Ps?
Preventing new infections, treating all paediatric cases, making sure we increase the human resources and programmes to fight the disease and promoting better health practices.
Anything to add?
It's a call to the youth, to take the challenge of HIV/AIDS at heart. To take their lives into their hands and turn the tide. They should endeavour that tomorrow, we've HIV/AIDS stabilised and increase our life expectancy as well as see the gains of growth and development in subsequent years. The fight against AIDS, TB and malaria is an important Millennium Development Goal, which we must achieve, if we're going to alleviate poverty and decrease famine.
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