UN agency urges improved healthcare for displaced people with HIV in Ethiopia

Addis Ababa (The Uttam Hindu): The United Nations has called for concerted efforts to provide enhanced healthcare services for displaced people living with HIV in Ethiopia. In a statement issued on Monday in connection with World AIDS Day, which is marked each year on December 1, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said that Ethiopia faces a triple crisis of conflict, climate change, and displacement that impedes the capacity to provide essential health and other humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people in need, including those living with HIV. The UN agency, citing a recent joint mission in camps housing internally displaced persons (IDPs) in two regions of Ethiopia hardest hit by humanitarian crises and grappling with rising HIV rates, said among the most pressing gaps is the lack of comprehensive healthcare, particularly for people living with HIV, reports Xinhua news agency.

It said in humanitarian crises, critical services for HIV and sexual and reproductive health are often sidelined, overshadowed by the urgent need for food, shelter and disease control. "Healthcare is restricted to primary services. Care for chronic conditions, such as HIV, is referred to government hospitals. This means that all patients, IDP or not, must pay for transportation as well as services and purchase vital medical supplies on their own -- an impossible burden for many," it said. The UNAIDS said as international organisations step up their efforts to address HIV in humanitarian settings, there is a coordinated push in Ethiopia to ensure that the health needs of people living with HIV are met, including people in the most challenging circumstances. "Ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 is within reach, but only if global leaders commit to dismantling barriers to healthcare and upholding human rights," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message on World AIDS Day.