Women's day: Let men celebrate, emulate their high uptake of HIV prevention, care, and treatment services.
It is ten years since Alen,not real names lost her husband to HIV/AIDS. But she always refers to his death as suicidal. Reason? Because much as he knew they were HIV positive,she he vehemently refused to enroll on treatment; with the inception of Anti Retrial Viral Drugs,HIV is no more a death sentence. But in contrast,Allen took courage, accepted the sour fate and started drugs;adhered to it,and as she speaks,her viral load is undetectable! The 33 year old even got married to another man with whom she bore an HIV free baby,thanks to Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMCT) Allen's husband adds a figure to the huge list of men who prematurely succumb to HIV/AIDS related diseases because of their low uptake of test,treatment, and adherence to drugs. At a micro level,a look at Kitovu Mobile's 2018 ARV adherence data, from 150 adult women had good adherence compared to the 80 men. This will still be reflected in low Viral Load Suppression (VLS) prevalence.