Banjul City Council (BCC) recently joined the rest of the international community to celebrate the World AIDS Day (WAD) at the 22nd July Square in Banjul, on the theme, 'Getting to Zero'. As part of activities marking the day the Municipal AIDS Committee of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) and BCC conducted series of activities geared towards advocacy and awareness creation. The activities include an open field day at the July 22nd Square, which brought together religious leaders, councilors, youths, school children and among others from the communities, in a bid to sensitise for male involvement in the Elimination of Mother to Child Transmission (EMTCT), as well as Voluntary HIV Counseling and Testing. Speaking on behalf of the Health minister, Alpha Khan, deputy director of National Aids Secretariat (NAS) averred that in The Gambia, the National Aids Secretariat (NAS), Action Aid International The Gambia and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare continue to spearhead the HIV and AIDS national response in partnership with other stakeholders. The government, he noted has manifested commitment through concrete actions and policy engagement with a view to strengthening the gains made in the national response to HIV and AIDS.
Khan observed that the national response continues to make tremendous strides to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic as a major developmental challenge. "HIV prevalence remains relatively low (1.9% according to the 2012 DHS preliminary results)," he said. Based on evidence on the HIV regional situation, he went on, this year's World AIDS Day has already been observed in the LRR region whilst recent studies show that the prevalence is highest in LRR as compared to the rest of the country.
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