UNAIDS highlights need to reach men

Linking men to HIV services is a major challenge, reports South Africa’s Times Live, citing the latest Global AIDS Update from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Times Live covered the release of the report in the Kwazulu-Natal town of Eshowe, where a project run by Doctors Without Borders has achieved the UNAIDS goals of 90-90-90 a year ahead of the 2020 deadline. In Eshowe, 90 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 94 percent of those who know they are HIV-positive are on antiretroviral treatment, and 95% of those on treatment have a suppressed viral load. But reaching men has proved difficult, despite initiatives such as a male clinic at a taxi rank and transport to and from weekend VMMC camps (Times Live, 13 July 2019).