By Jacob Ngwenya
With 1 December marking World AIDS Day, it came and passed. The world can end AIDS – if everyone’s rights are protected. With human rights at the centre, and communities in the lead, the world can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
On 1 December, Zimbabwe Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) Action Network joined the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other partners and communities to commemorate World AIDS Day 2024. Under the theme “Take the rights path: My health, my right!”, WHO is calling on global leaders and citizens to champion the right to health by addressing the inequalities that hinder progress in ending AIDS.
As people living with NCDs, mental health and neurological conditions on World AIDS Day, we spoke up for health equity as we take a stance that everyone, everywhere, has the right to quality healthcare services in the fight against HIV and AIDS. People living with HIV are being exposed to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as they are now aging because of the advent of ARVs exposing them to risk of developing NCDs due to the virus itself and treatment side effects. Without HIV and NCDs integrated healthcare services, there is no health equity to talk about.
Everyone should have access to the health services they need, including HIV treatment, NCDs, mental health and neurological conditions prevention, treatment and care services when and where they need them. Protecting rights means ensuring that healthcare is available to everyone without any discrimination, regardless of their HIV status, background, gender, or where they live.
Stigma and discrimination undermine the fight against AIDS. Protecting human rights is essential to achieving universal HIV care and breaking down barriers to access. People living with HIV and NCDs, mental health and neurological conditions running concurrently suffer double burden of stigma and discrimination. Without integrated HIV and NCDs, healthcare services and programmes dealing with stigma and discrimination the whole purpose of health for all, leaving no one behind is defeated.
With early diagnosis and consistent antiretroviral therapy, people living with HIV can lead to long, healthy lives just like those who are HIV-negative. Achieving and maintaining an undetectable viral load by taking antiretroviral therapy as prescribed means zero risk of transmission, empowering individuals, and protecting communities.
Taking the right path has to be inclusive of NCDs to ensure that “My Health My Right” is not rhetoric but encompasses everyone, everywhere.
Rights of PLHIV are better respected if there is guaranteed access to HIV treatment and care. Access must not be disrupted.
People living with NCDs who are failing to pay for the medical services they desperately need end up paying with their lives.
The gains of ART are at risk of being reversed as PLHIV, who survived the AIDS pandemic of the 1990s and early 2000s, will succumb to NCDs. The continued sidelining of NCDs is a grave mistake that can blow out of proportion the silent pandemic of NCDs or rather catalyze the pandemic in slow motion to unprecedented levels. All we ask for is a universal coverage of all health conditions.
The current scenario of choosing who lives or dies is inhuman and is a denial of people living with NCDs, their fundamental right to health
