As Cameroon strives to effectively achieve the 95-95-95 targets by December 2025, several challenges were highlighted during the first statutory meeting of the National AIDS Control Committee for 2025.
One of the major and crucial challenges outlined during discussions was that of searching for new sources of financing, both at the local and international levels, as Cameroon is among African countries affected by the suspension of USAID funding from the United States of America.
The first statutory meeting of the National AIDS Control Committee(NACC), chaired by the board chair and Public Health Minister, Dr Manaouda Malachie, took place on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at the conference hall of the Red Cross.
As per tradition, a review of activities carried on during the previous year was highlighted, and the new plan of action for 2025 was unveiled to various officials, community-led networks, and partners present at the session.
In his keynote address, Public Health Minister, Dr Manaouda Malachie said this first statutory meeting is a call to remobilization and concerted efforts aimed at seeking new funding for HIV/AIDS in Cameroon.
Public Health Patron stated that, despite the current threats faced by the suspension of subventions by the new American administration, there is a need to salute the results of the national response, which are encouraging and still stand at around 2.7%.
He said thanks to the newly implemented initiative dubbed “Pediatric Surge”, which helped to have 3.102 persons tested HIV positive and 1.188 new cases of pediatric HIV identified (782 children and 406 adolescents), there has been a great move in the search and monitoring of new cases.
Dr Manaouda Malachie also hailed contributive efforts and the synergy that was put in place with all community-based organizations, networks of people living with HIV/AIDS, and International Partners, which are a strong force in the fight against the pandemic.
Taking the floor to make a balance sheet of the year 2024, Permanent Secretary of the National AIDS Control Committee, Dr. Fokam Joseph, said the previous year was marked by a good number of activities that positively impacted on the strides made in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
He cited the first scientific days organized by NACC, the launch of the CAMPHIA reports whose results highly expected in the days ahead and laid emphasis on the Pediatric Surge initiative.
Dr. Fokam said that despite multiple efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS in Cameroon, one of the main hindrances faced by patients remains stigmatization and discrimination.
He said a drop in these two core scourges will greatly help in reducing the rate of the disease in our community especially among the Key Populations (KPs). He said the right to health is not negotiable, it is a must. Reason why government has set up incentives such as the Universal Health Coverage for the benefits of every citizen.
Speaking to media practitioners at the end of the one-day held statutory meeting, NACC’s Permanent Secretary once more emphasized some key figures.
Dr Fokam Joseph said: “We conducted routine testing with our health facilities and in the community during the year 2024, and we were able to detect close to 46.000 cases of HIV positive, and among these 46.000 cases, about 36.000 of them were newly tested positive persons. So, this represents a number of new clients whom we linked to antiretroviral therapy within the first days after the disclosure of their status. And this permits us to emphasize that testing is done free of charge, as well as linkage to treatment and the follow-up for viral load testing are also done free of charge.
He added: “At least 9 out of our 10 clients who received antiretroviral drugs have control of the virus. In this context, most of our clients, even without the use of condoms, can no longer transmit the disease to their sexual partners. That is why we believe in a universal enrollment of People Living with HIV/AIDS on antiretroviral therapy for us to also curb down the risk of HIV transmission in our communities, but at the same time also to prevent the risk of mortality due to HIV/AIDS.
Reaching the 95-95-95 targets by 2025 as established by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), implies that 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of people who know their status are receiving HIV treatment, and 95% of people on treatment are virally suppressed. This declaration reinforces and accelerates the UNAIDS Fast-Track strategy to end the AIDS pandemic by 2030, adopted on 18 November 2014, which included achieving the 90-90-90 testing and treatment targets by 2020.
Elise Kenimbeni
