By Seleshi Tessema
ADDIS ABABA
Ethiopia has marked the World AIDS Day with conducting a record mass HIV testing campaign in the western Gambella regional state, 700 km southwest of the capital Addis Ababa, local health officials said Monday.
"At least 3,382 persons underwent the voluntary HIV test on Sunday," Deputy Director of Ethiopia's HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office (HAPCO) Alemu Ano told The Anadolu Agency on Monday.
"This was a voluntary test, and we have set a world record for the number of the persons who underwent voluntary HIV blood test in one day," he added.
According to Ano, the previous record was held by Argentina which tested 1,380 persons for HIV virus in one day in November 2012.
The test was conducted in Gambella regional state, which has the 6.5 percent infection rate – the highest in the country – while the national prevalence rate stands at 1.2 percent, Ano said.
Ano attributed the relatively higher infection rate in the state to "deeply entrenched sex behavior in this part of Ethiopia."
“Widow inheritance and unprotected sex on market days are risky health behaviors we want to change to reduce the infection rate," he added.
"Local, global and Guinness observers were present at the occasion," he said, voicing confidence that the number would be recorded in Guinness World Records.
Earlier this week, the UN children’s fund has hailed Ethiopia as "one of the 25 countries that reduced new HIV infection by 90 percent from 135,000 in 2001 to 15,000 in 2013."
"On average, more than 11 million people per year have been reached with HIV testing and counseling as part of early treatment initiation efforts," it said.
The statement noted that the country's Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) access has improved over the last decade.
"[In Ethiopia] ART has dramatically increased from 8,000 in 2005 to over 35,000 in 2014," the release noted.
According to Ano, these achievements are attributed to the country's nationwide multi-sectoral prevention and control strategy.
"The primary focus has been around changing people’s knowledge and attitude about HIV and prevention," he said.
According to the official figures of the Health Ministry, general knowledge on HIV in the country is almost universal.
"Some 97 percent of women and 99 percent of men have heard about AIDS. [However] comprehensive knowledge of AIDS is uncommon. Only 19 percent of women and 32 percent of men have comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention methods,” a ministry report said.
The provision of condoms, which is promoted to be the only available scientific way of prevention, has also contributed to the reduction of infection.
"Over the last 20 years, we have imported and made available 1 billion condoms,” Fitih Tola, a communication officer with DKT-Ethiopia, a social marketing NGO, told AA.
"The annual condom sale is about 70 million," he said.
Today, only some 734,000 of Ethiopia’s estimated 90 million population live with HIV.
One of them is Solomon Ayele, a pastor working with Ethiopian Network of Religious Leaders.
"I am an HIV positive, and living positively," Ayele told AA.
"Despite changes in the public’s behavior regarding acceptance of people living with HIV, there are still discriminations," he said.
"We see changes and we also observe stigmatization and discrimination expressed in various forms and places," he added.
"We are not yet discrimination-free in our social behavior and work atmosphere."
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