Statements and Webcast
Honduras
H.E. Mr. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, President
8 June 2011
- Statement: Spanish (Check against delivery)
Statement Summary
PORFIRIO LOBO SOSA, President of Honduras, stated his clear commitment to ensuring universal access to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS. Those affected by the disease were stigmatized. Combating HIV/AIDS was a high priority. He had done much to carry forward Government efforts to respond the scourge in a timely way in order to fulfil the sixth Millennium Development Goal, which called for reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. The number of new HIV infections was declining in Honduras. The country had implemented standard health-care programme for HIV/AIDS patients and had instituted training and capacity-building to improve care.
Action had increased at all levels. In Honduras, there now existed a greater number of health-care centres providing counselling and HIV testing, he said. The number of people tested had reached nearly 200,000 in the last 12 months. The Government was implementing a national plan to promote prenatal screening so that expectant mothers could go to health-care centres to receive care for HIV/AIDS. The goal was to try to prevent mother-to-child transmissions. The Health Secretariat had revised its strategy and instituted a comprehensive approach to address sexually-transmitted diseases for the 2011-2015 period.
Honduras now had an approach that promoted a shared responsibility among families, which was intended to empower them, so that everyone could play an active part in health care, he said. Despite such successes, the socioeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS was significant. The disease hit young people of a reproductive, economically active age. It had an adverse impact on family income and on the labour force in the medium-term and the long-term. Significantly extending the response to HIV/AIDS must be a priority. It was necessary to act to prevent the disease, in particular its impact on women and young girls, and to protect vulnerable people through social cohesion. Honduras’ Government was doing much nationally and internationally to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease.
Source: GA/11086