95-95-95: Botswana hits target

Botswana, a southern African country of 2.3 million people, has become the second country in the world to meet the 95-95-95 targets set by UNAIDS to eradicate the HIV pandemic, announced (July 27) researchers, welcoming “spectacular results”. That is, 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 95% of people who know they are HIV-positive have access to treatment, and 95% of people on treatment have a viral load undetectable. “Botswana is making historic new progress in the fight once morest HIV,” said Sharon Lewin, President of the International AIDS Society (IAS). The study concludes that Botswana is “well positioned to end its HIV epidemic by 2030. To put it simply, these are truly exceptional results”. About one in five people in the country are currently living with HIV — one of the highest rates in the world. Botswana thus joins another southern African country, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), which had achieved the goal in 2020. “We have turned a hopeless situation into a situation where there is now hope”, said the study’s lead author and virologist on behalf of the Botswana government, Madisa Mine.