World AIDS Day: we have a long way to go to protect the vulnerable, says activist

Ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December 2022, HIV activist and Unitaid board member Maureen Murenga has shared powerful personal testimony to encourage more urgency in the fight against the illness.

Referring to a recent UNAIDS report which indicated that the world’s AIDS response is in danger, with rising new infections and deaths in many parts of the world, Ms. Murenga explained that adolescent girls and young women are still disproportionately affected by HIV.

“(It) is really saddening because when I was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago I was an ado(lescent) and a young woman and I thought that 20 years later we would be telling a different story and not the same sad story,” she told journalists in Geneva.

Treatment challenges

Ms. Murenga, a Kenyan national who represents communities living with HIV, faced hostility and stigma when she was diagnosed with the virus in the early 2000s. Through her organization, the Lean On Me Foundation, adolescent girls and young women living with HIV receive care and support, but inequalities remain in the global approach to treatment and prevention.

“We are still seeing a lot of new infections”, she said. “It means that the treatment is not reaching everyone and where it is, people are not adhering to treatment.”

Nonetheless, progress has been made, particularly in identifying infections, Ms. Murenga said, recalling the torment of her wait for a diagnosis, and the fact that she needed to get herself tested five times before she could accept that she had HIV.

Support structures lacking

“During the time I was diagnosed with HIV, there was a delay in getting results,” she said. “You’d be tested and then you would wait for two weeks to get your results. And that delay was – it was a very difficult time for someone to wait that long.”

According to UNAIDS, adolescent girls and young women aged 15 to 24 years are three times more likely to acquire HIV than adolescent boys and young men in sub-Saharan Africa. “The driving factor is power,” the UN agency said, citing a study which showed that enabling girls to stay in school until they complete secondary education “reduces their vulnerability to HIV infection by up to 50 per cent.

Not a death sentence any more

In 2021, Unitaid noted that more than 38 million people globally were living with HIV, 1.5 million people were newly infected with HIV and 650,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses.

Despite these stark figures, Ms. Murenga insists that HIV is no longer a “death sentence”. Now, “people can diagnose much faster”, she insisted. “We even have diagnosis like self-test kits where you can do it in confidential and in privacy.”

The last 20 years have also seen significant innovations that have ensured the suitability of treatment regimes for younger HIV patients, albeit with some caveats, Ms. Murenga noted.

“We didn’t have treatment for children and my son was also diagnosed with HIV. So that meant that I could not take drugs to save my live and leave my child to die. So, I used to improvise and divide my tablet into two and give (it to) the child. But then I didn’t know whether it was affecting his body organs I didn’t know if the dosage was okay, but I just did it to ensure that he did not die.”

She added: “It took us a while to get medication for children. And even when it came, it wasn’t very child-friendly. And just recently, we have paediatric dolutegravir which is child-friendly but it is the only one, the so children don’t have a variety in case of resistance.”

ends

STORY: World AIDS Day - Unitaid

TRT: 2 min 20s

SOURCE: UNTV CH

RESTRICTIONS: NONE

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS

ASPECT RATIO: 16:9

DATELINE: 29 November 20222022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

SHOTLIST

1. Medium-wide, UN Geneva flag alley.
2. Medium, press room, journalists seated and looking at podium speakers.
3. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “That report from Unitaid shows that adolescent girls and young women are disproportionately affected by HIV is really saddening because when I was diagnosed with HIV 20 years ago I was an ado and a young woman and I thought that 20 years later we would be telling a different story and not the same sad story.”
4. Medium, journalists either working on laptop or listening to speaker (out of shot).
5. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “We are still seeing a lot of new infections. It means that the treatment is not reaching everyone and where it is, people are not adhering to treatment.”
6. Close, partial view of headset, podium speaker to rear.
7. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “During the time I was diagnosed with HIV, there was a delay in getting results. You’d be tested and then you would wait for two weeks to get your results. And that delay was – it was a very difficult time for someone to wait that long.”
8. Medium, journalists in profile, working on laptops or checking mobile phone.
9. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “We didn’t have treatment for children and my son was also diagnosed with HIV. So that meant that I could not take drugs to save my live and leave my child to die. So, I used to improvise and divide my tablet into two and give (it to) the child. But then I didn’t know whether it was affecting his body organs I didn’t know if the dosage was okay, but I just did it to ensure that he did not die.”
10. Close, hands typing on laptop.
11. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “It took us a while to get medication for children. And even when it came, it wasn’t very child-friendly. And just recently, we have paediatric dolutegravir which is child-friendly but it is the only one, the so children don’t have a variety in case of resistance.”
12. Medium, TV camera operator adjusting camera.
13. SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Maureen Murenga, Activist and Unitaid board member representing communities living with HIV: “We have moved from HIV being a death sentence to now when we have people can diagnose much faster. We even have diagnosis like self-test kits where you can do it in confidential and in privacy.”
14. Close, participant with headset, blurred, speaker to rear.
15. Medium, participants wearing facemasks in profile, large TV screen showing speaker to rear.
16. Close, participant’s face reflected in laptop screen.