HIV/AIDS Prevention Amongst Troops : Palatable Results Recorded, Efforts Continue

A healthy defence force guarantees more effective protection of persons and property. For efficiency, government collaborates with other partners, as is the case with the United States of America. Since 2015, the US Army Department of Defence HIV/AIDS Prevention Division (DHAPP) under the funding of the US President’s PEPFAR initiative, has been providing financial and technical support to the fight against the virus within the defence forces through the DHAPP/PEPFAR project whose implementing partner is METABIOTA. As of October 1, 2023, the projects previously carried out in Cameroon by the American organisation, METABIOTA, will be definitively transferred to the Association HEADA (Health And Development in Action) Cameroon. It is thus in this context that the Secretary General of the Ministry of Defence, Saïd Kamsouloum on behalf of the Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, presided at the closing and relaunch ceremony of the DHAPP/PEPFAR project conducted within the Cameroon defence forces, on September 21, 2023. 
Saluting friendly diplomatic ties between Cameroon and the United States, the Secretary General said HIV/AIDS is a public health problem which draws the attention of authorities, reason why there is a unit to the effect at the Ministry which has the objective of implementing measures to reduce its prevalence within the corps. Saïd Kamsouloum added that since 2015, the Cameroonian defence forces have benefitted from the technical and financial assistance of the United States, in view of attaining the 95-95-95 targets set by UNAIDS to bring the HIV epidemic under control among populations by 2030. That is 95 per cent of people carrying the virus are aware of their seropositivity, 95 per cent of people diagnosed are receiving antiretroviral treatment, and 95 per cent of people receiving tre...