HIV Aids One of the Main Stumbling Blocks to Efforts to Successfully Achieve the Millennium Development Goals in Tanzania
HIV/Aids is one of the main stumbling blocks to Tanzania’s efforts to successfully achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) a University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) research report released recently has disclosed.
The report by the Economics Department of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) claims that although HIV prevalence among adults has been reduced by nearly a half from 2000 to 2007, the scourge remains a main challenge for the successful implementation of MDGs.
"The slow progress in reducing maternal mortality in Mainland Tanzania is compounded by the HIV/Aids pandemic which is more prevalent among the most productively active age groups", report prepared by USDA experts says.
The pandemic has slowed progress in reducing maternal mortality whose 2010 ratio of 454 women per 100,000 is short of the expected rate of 337 for that year.
The report was prepared by experts within the framework of on-going consultation dialogue on Post 2015 Global Development Agenda in the country whose key players are the Economics Department and the Planning Commission.
It says as long as 50 percent of hospital beds in Tanzania are occupied by patients with HIV and Aids-related illness, the pandemic would continue to pose threat to the country’s development efforts.
"The single biggest challenge that threatens the MDGs is the spread of HIV/Aids which also threatens National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (Mkukuta)", the researchers points out.
Tanzanian was recently seen to have made some success in combating HIV/Aids when the disease prevalence among adults was reduced from 9.4 percent in 2000 to 5.7 percent in 2007 which is very close to the MDG target of 5.5 percent in 2015.
Other major stumbling diseases are malaria, tuberculosis (TB), diarrhea and other diseases, decimating the government’s financial resources and accounting for many deaths.
A senior economics lecturer at UDSM Dr Innocent Karamagi singled on the report that the single biggest challenge threatening the achievement of MDGs is the spread of HIV/Aids.
The role of the development partners, non-state actors (NSAs) including faith-based organizations, as well as the Health Sector HIV and Aids Strategic Plan (2007) have been commended for having fortified the fight against the pandemic.
Other concerns include the relatively slower progress in the reduction of the prevalence rate among women, little impact on behavioral change despite awareness of people on the dangers of HIV/Aids and stigma and discrimination against carriers of the disease.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
Category: Africa
