The new UN Aids Country Director for Seychelles Salvator Niyonzima yesterday morning paid a courtesy call on Vice-President Danny Faure at State House.
Mr Niyonzima, who is on his first official visit to Seychelles, talked to the vice-president about the HIV/Aids situation in the country, Seychelles’ response to the pandemic as well as achievements recorded.
He expressed his appreciation to Seychelles having introduced the harm reduction programme with possibility of needle exchange, as he says needle infection is now the main cause of new contaminations.
With the programme, he feels that Seychelles now offers “the whole package” in HIV detection, prevention and treatment.
While he noted successes such as a drop in prevalence with for example no mother to child contamination in 2015, he insisted that we must step up the response and not lower the guard, as it is important to prevent new cases.
Mr Niyonzima who is also Country Director for Madagascar, Mauritius and the Comores, has at the same time noted that Seychelles’ prevalence is slightly higher than for other countries in the region.
He added that as much as possible, the same strategy must be adopted for those different countries.
As Country Director, he said that he will continue to support the region’s countries by engaging in more dialogue with the government, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), churches as well as other social groups in terms of policy and technical issues.
“We have to make sure that the next generation is spared of HIV/Aids”, concluded the UN Aids Country Director.
Source : Seychelles NATION