SPLM appeals for a national HIV/AIDS awareness campaign

December 3, 2007 (KHARTOUM) — Sudan people’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) Northern Sector yesterday appealed for a national awareness campaign for HIV/AIDS, which has claimed the lives of over 23,000 Sudanese.

“We call upon all political and civil leaders and the media to come together and formulate an effective national program, in coordination with the specialized organs, and to launch a campaign to raise the awareness of the people of the Sudan.” Said a press release issued by the SPLM.

In a report issued in September 2005, the UNDP said that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in southern Sudan is “believed to have moved in the generalized phase … where infection has gone beyond high-risk groups into the general population.”

The SPLM said that the HIV /AIDS disease constitutes a formidable threat to all parts of the country, from the South to the North and from the East to the West.

The statement underlined the need to launch a strong HIV/AIDS national campaign that should involve all political and civil societies’ leaders, in such a way that political and civic discourse is directed, in the first place, to the benefit of the people and the society and to give priority to humanity over politics.

Experts say awareness program faces basic problems like poor health services, insufficient medicine and social stigmas when talking to children about the relationship between HIV/AIDS and sexual intercourse.

A UNICEF report said 75 percent of women aged 15-49 don’t know HIV can be transmitted from mother-to-child, while more than 35 percent of young people think HIV can be transmitted through mosquito bites. A quarter of young people believe the virus can be transmitted by sharing a meal with a person living with HIV/AIDS.

Less than 10 percent out of almost 75 percent of Sudanese aged between 19 and 24 are fully aware of how to use condoms correctly, while just 23 percent know HIV can be transmitted through unprotected sex.

(ST)