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Office of the UN Resident Coordinator – MALAWI
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PRESS RELEASE

UN Envoy appeals for efforts to address mother to child infections and food security for people living with HIV

Stephen Lewis and (right) Hon. Majorie Ngaunje, M.P., Minister of Health at St. Gabriel’s Hospital.

(Right) Hospital Director Dr. Athanase Kiromera explaining hospital facilities to Hon. Ngaunje, Stephen Lewis and Anurita Bains, Special Assistant to the UN Envoy.

Marita and Alick Kango give their testimony to patients at St. Gabriel’s Hospital. Also in the picture are Hilda Kamera, Principal Nursing Officer (centre), Hon. Majorie Ngaunje and Stephen Lewis.

LILONGWE, 31 October 2006 – United Nations Special Envoy for HIV and AIDS in Africa has appealed for intensified efforts to reduce the high number children who are born with HIV in Malawi. Mr. Stephen Lewis emphasised that prevention of mother to child transmission is imperative in responding to the HIV pandemic in Malawi.

Mr. Lewis who was on a three day mission to Malawi, was speaking after visiting a hospital in Lilongwe district, which involves the community to strengthen HIV and AIDS prevention, care and treatment programme. Malawi’s Minster of Health, Hon. Marjorie Ngaunje, M.P., who accompanied Mr. Lewis, said prevention of mother to child transmission services are increasingly available at over 100 health centres in the country, but require stronger advocacy to fight the stigma associated with the AIDS scourge and encourage mothers and fathers to be tested.

Hon. Ngaunje used the example of a couple who gave their testimony at St. Gabriel’s Hospital. Alick and Marita Kango discovered in 2003 that they were HIV positive. Through preventive therapy including using Nevirapine at birth, their child was born without the virus. The couple live openly positive and spend part of their time encouraging couples to go for testing and make informed decisions on their health.

According to National AIDS Commission (NAC), up to 30,000 babies born to HIV infected mothers will acquire the HIV virus every year, a figure that can be drastically reduced if pregnant mothers are routinely tested during antenatal care and preventive treatment administered.

Mr. Lewis also met with the representatives from community and national organisations of networks of people living with HIV and AIDS. He described as poignant and compelling, the freedom with which several men and women are talking about their status and the significant difference that community involvement is making in reducing stigma and addressing the challenges faced by people living with HIV and AIDS.

He said that this is helping communities protect the rights of orphans and other vulnerable people, especially in Malawi, where half of the one million orphans have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Poor nutrition, he added is emerging as the single greatest threat to quality life for HIV positive people who are on ARV treatment in Malawi and most sub Saharan countries. Mr. Lewis said the United Nations through the World Food Programme would continue to support governments to provide supplementary food to people on antiretroviral therapy.

In Malawi, United Nations is working with the government to address the impact of AIDS on the nutritional status of children and women. Additional nutritional support is mostly provided through hospitals, but can greatly increase its reach and improve the quality of life of people living with HIV and AIDS through home-based care outreach.

Mr. Lewis applauded the remarkable role that people living with HIV and AIDS are playing, which has boosted Malawi’s fight against the pandemic. However, he is challenging national and local organisations to ensure that people living with the disease are influencing national policies and in positions to manage these policies and related programmes. The policy that passed internationally in 2000 recognises them as one of the most powerful agents of behaviour change. Having a personal insight to associate with the concept of “a person with HIV or AIDS” helps people overcome their fears and prejudices.

He further appealed to the Minister of Health to lobby for a review of the constitution to include a clause that criminalises the discrimination of people living with HIV and AIDS.

On global advocacy, Mr. Lewis has petitioned the G8 to deliver on promises to increase aid to countries such as Malawi so that they can sustain and scale up their prevention, treatment and care programmes, and achieve the Millennium Development Goal to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV by 2015.

In a span of two years, the number of people living with HIV and receiving antiretroviral therapy in Malawi has increased from less than 4,000 in June 2004 to almost 50,000 in June 2006. By end of 2005 over 500,000 people had tested for HIV from a 160,000 in 2004. While in Malawi, Mr. Lewis received the third Baylor International Paediatric AIDS Initiative (BIPAI) Leadership Award. The Baylor College of Medicine’s international paediatric programme, a non-profit corporation sponsors paediatric HIV treatment and care programmes in six African countries including Malawi.

For more information contact:
UN Communication Officer, Susan Muguro +265 9 967 991, susan.muguro@undp.org