Government Has No Budget Allocation For Fighting HIV/AIDS

This article was last updated on May 25, 2022

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The fight against the disease Dr. Michael Milly said is being funded by Global Fund and other donors.

“HIV/AIDS has never been funded by the Ministry or government. All along we have been depending on global fund donors. Global fund used to finance certain projects on HIV/AIDS and malaria,” Milly told Gurtong in an exclusive interview.

“To our dismay we have been told by Global Fund that they are not going to be able to fund HIV/AIDS projects this year,” Milly added.

Less than three per cent of the National government’s budget is being allocated to the Ministry of Health.

Three percent of the country’s population has been affected with HIV/AIDS virus with some states registering a prevalence of 7 per cent.

This statistic is no longer reliable as it was carried out three years ago, he said, adding the ministry has planned to establish a fresh statistics to determine the present effect of the disease.

“We are now about to do fresh findings to establish the really prevalent rate,” Milly said.

Milly said bad behavior practices by youths indulging themselves into alcoholism and cultural practices have been some of the key factors in accelerating HIV/AIDS prevalence in the country.

He pointed out that the cultural practice of wife inheritance is another factor which contributes to the spread of the disease and called for an end to the practice.

“The only strategy to fight HIV/HIDS is to increase awareness on the-know of HIV/AIDS,” he said. 

South Sudan joins the world today in marking the World AIDS Day. In his message to the people in the country, he urged for partners to focus on intensify awareness on the disease to the people and emphasized knowing about the disease is the only way of preventing its spread.

 “My message to the people of South Sudan is to recognize that AIDS is real. AIDS is a danger. AIDS has no treatment. AIDS has no cure but the only way to avoid AIDS is to have proper knowledge about HIV/AIDS and there we can avoid infection,” Milly told Gurtong.