This World AIDS Day, I want to emphasize the importance of knowing one’s HIV status. There are an estimated 530 000 people living with HIV in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, but just 38% of them know that they are HIV positive.
Only those who know their [HIV] status can access treatment, live healthy lives and prevent transmission to others.
Providing voluntary HIV testing services must remain a priority for all our countries, along with ensuring access to treatment and care. And those who test negative should have access to prevention services to help them stay HIV free.
Testing services must prioritize those who need them most. In our Region, less than 10% of tests reach key populations, even though nearly two-thirds of all new HIV infections occur among those populations.
We are launching an HIV testing week in the Region from 1 to 7 December under the theme “I did it for me. Do it for you.”
The theme emphasizes our personal responsibility to test and the benefits of knowing one’s HIV status.
I encourage all countries to make sure testing reaches key populations using differentiated approaches such as self-testing, network-based testing, virtual interventions and digital platforms. This is an opportunity to promote testing and make it more convenient and accessible.
WHO stands ready to support you in your efforts. Let us all work together to meet the commitment we have made and end AIDS as a public health problem by 2030.
