Statements and Webcast
Burundi
H.E. Mr. Gervais Rufyikiri, Second Vice President
9 June 2011
- Statement: French (Check against delivery)
Statement Summary
GERVAIS RUFYIKIRI, Second Vice-President of Burundi, said that in following the preparations for the High-level Meeting, his country had noticed a shared will to put an end to HIV/AIDS. Burundi welcomed the goal of zero new deaths, and called for incorporating activities against sexual violence into national HIV/AIDS programmes, as recommended by the Secretary-General and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Since 2001, the country had made progress, despite political crisis, in responding to the epidemic through a multisector framework supported by authorities at the highest level, as well as a follow-up treatment and support mechanism.
He said that between 2001 and 2010, Burundi had increased from 20 to 400 the number of centres for diagnosing HIV and AIDS; the number of people diagnosed from 10,000 to 430,000; the number of centres for preventing mother-to-child transmission from 2 to 110; the number of women following the prevention protocol from 100 to 2,600; the number of centres for people living with HIV from 1 to 90; the number of people receiving antiretroviral treatment from 600 to 22,000; and the number of orphans assisted from 2,500 to 70,000.
The Government now had the opportunity to look to the future and set realistic goals, he continued, saying it intended to identify 1.9 million people for testing, 14,000 pregnant women who were HIV-positive, and to achieve 80 per cent coverage for antiretroviral treatment. However, Burundi faced enormous challenges, including a lack of qualified personnel, health-care equipment and infrastructure, and appealed to potential partners to continue supporting its fight against HIV/AIDS. The Government was pursuing efforts to combat AIDS by providing an annual subsidy, and hoped to see international efforts crowned with success and a world free of HIV and AIDS.
Source: GA/11090