FREETOWN, Dec 1, 2008 (AFP) - Sierra Leone's leader reaffirmed Monday the government's commitment to provide universal access to HIV treatment and prevention by 2010, and urged citizens to get tested for the AIDS virus.
"By knowing your HIV status, you can save not only your life but those of others," President Ernest Koroma said in a nationwide address Monday marking World AIDS day.
"Achieving nationwide access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010" will remain a priority, Koroma said, as a means to stop and begin reversing the spread of the pandemic by 2015.
Roughly 1.5 percent of the country's population has the AIDS virus HIV, according to records of a recently finished government survey.
Sierra Leone launched a national testing campaign a week ahead of World AIDS Day, with 16,000 people having taken the tests as of Sunday, said Alimamy Koroma, a spokesman to the National Aids Secretariat (NAS).
"Our major challenge is how to sustain and maintain this momentum," Koroma said.
But activist Idrissa Songo, coordinator for the Network of People Living with Aids, said more testing facilities were needed -- and that stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS remained high.
"This is the biggest challenge. I think if people have enough information about the disease, there will be little or no finger pointing," he said.
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