DREAMS To Address HIV/AIDS Data Shortages
The Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti says Botswana continues to be amongst the most affected countries by HIV/ AIDS with the third-highest adult HIV prevalence that requires real-time data for programme improvement and impact.
Speaking at the handing over ceremony of DREAMS Database on Friday in Gaborone, Dikoloti said Botswana is still battling with the HIV/AIDS pandemic 35 years later, with the 2019 UN-AIDS report indicating that 68 new infections per week occur amongst young people.
“As a government, notwithstanding the efforts and interventions in place to aid the national response, we are still concerned with the new infections, which are mostly found amongst the young people of our nation,” Dikoloti said. “According to the 2019 UN-AIDS report, 68 new infections per week occur amongst young people. This is a great concern.”
He said despite serious commitments by stakeholders to winning the fight against HIV/ AIDS, unfortunately, all these efforts have been sporadically and inconsistently implemented in the country.
Dikoloti added there has also been a low intensity to address the needs of this particular target group and few geographic locations covered, which also does not reach the sparsely populated individual communities.
This, he said, was made difficult by shortage of data. “Therefore, there is a need for a structured and collated data system that will ensure that this array of services are adequately captured as and when the need arise.” He said the DREAMS database will strengthen accountability by all partners and be able to provide real-time data for programme improvement and impact.
Dikoloti also thanked the United States of America (USA) and assured that Botswana government will utilise the system well and provide all that is necessary for the utilisation of the database. US Ambassador to Botswana, Craig Cloud said although it seems “we are close to epidemic control, we are not there yet”.
Cloud said the database system will help alleviate duplication of duties by different stakeholders involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
He added as it stands, the country is at the hardest phase of the epidemic control, which is fighting gender-based violence. This, he said, makes DREAMS a critical part of the system in eliminating HIV/AIDS in Botswana. He said data will assist in prioritising areas where resources are needed.
He explained that DREAMS, which started in 2017 with an initial investment of P4.8 million, has the capacity to reach out to adolescent young girls and women in different parts of the country to assist them to remain HIV/ AIDS-free. DREAMS, an initiative of PEPFAR, provides a comprehensive package of core interventions to address key factors that make girls and young women particularly vulnerable to HIV.
These include structural factors such as gender-based violence, exclusion from economic opportunities and lack of access to secondary school.