Women Living with HIV and AIDS have a right to know about Reproductive Health – Dr. Julitta Onabanjo

Dr. Julitta Onabanjo, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Representative has highlighted the importance of reproductive health information and services for women living with HIV and AIDS.”All women including women living with HIV and AIDS have a right to sexual and reproductive health care including the prevention of HIV infections and the treatment of HIV related illnesses.

Only when women are healthy can they effectively contribute to social and economic development of their communities and the nation”. Dr. Onabanjo commented ahead of an advocacy and training workshop on ‘Reproductive Health and Rights for Women Living with HIV and AIDS (WLHA)’.

The three days workshop, which takes place in Dar es Salaam from 28th -30th July aims at empowering WLHA with capacity in advocating for their reproductive health and reproductive rights.

The organizers of the workshop, National Council of People Living with HIV and AIDS (NACOPHA) sees the workshop as a stepping stone and very crucial at empowering the women since it is fundamental to their well-being and that of their partners and children. NACOPHA also sees this as their contribution to national efforts in integrating sexual and reproductive health and HIV services.

In Tanzania, the HIV prevalence among women is almost 2 per cent higher than men (6.8% vs 4.7%). The Government has initiated a number of programmes on HIV and AIDS care, treatment, support and prevention.

Although the number of new HIV infections are still high in Tanzania (almost 200,000 annually), there have been successes in improving care and treatment services for People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHIV). This calls for a greater emphasis on addressing the reproductive health needs of PLHIV, especially women who form the majority and currently accessing care and treatment services.

Dr. Chilanga Asmani, UNFPA’s HIV and AIDS Programme Officer comments that a number of guidelines exist that address the specific sexual and reproductive health needs of women living with HIV and AIDS. “All women have the same rights concerning their reproductive desires and their sexuality, but WLHA require additional care and counseling during their reproductive life”. HIV infection accelerates the natural history of some reproductive illnesses, increases the severity of others and can affect the ability to become pregnant or the outcome of the pregnancy.

In 2009 an inter-agency guideline titled ‘Advancing the sexual and reproductive health and human rights of People Living With HIV (PLHIV)’ was released and different national HIV and AIDS guidelines, plans and strategies also address the importance of supporting PLHIV to access SRH services and information. These global and national guidelines will be used during the NACOPHA workshop.

NACOPHA is funded and works closely with UNFPA and other UN agencies under the UN Joint Programme on Support to the National HIV and AIDS Response. NACOPHA is a Non Governmental Organization which was established in 2003 with the purpose of bringing together people living with HIV/AIDS for the purpose of increasing participation and improving their lobbying capacity in their responsibility towards waging war against HIV/AIDS in Tanzania.

For more information about HIV & AIDS
contact
Dr. Chillanga Asmani:
Asmani@unfpa.org;

Information about UNFPA
contact
Sawiche Wamunza:
wamunza@unfpa.org;

Further information about NACOPHA
contact
Deogratius Peter:
nacopha@yahoo.com