The HIV prevalence in Rwanda has been stable since 2005 and remains at 3 percent among adults age 15-49 (4 percent among women and 2 percent among men). The HIV prevalence is highest in the City of Kigali (6.3 percent) and is relatively uniform throughout the other provinces (2 percent to 3 percent). According to the latest census data, approximately 52 percent of the population is under 19 years old, majority of whom are HIV negative, given the low HIV prevalence among adolescents and youth people aged 15-24 years of 1%.

However, according to 2014/2015 Rwanda Health demographic survey, these adolescents and young people remain at risk, particularly young girls who are five times as likely to be infected compared to boys of the same age, 2.5% vs. 0.5%. Results from the latest survey show that the proportion of adolescent girls (15-19) who have begun childbearing has increased in the last 10 years and is now at 7.3 %.

In 2015, the government of Rwanda conducted a situation analysis of adolescent program interventions. Findings of the assessment showed that new HIV infections among adolescents were on the increase and knowledge on HIV prevention was not adequate and access to HIV and SRH interventions were limited and unfriendly to adolescents. The assessment further identified key priority interventions, on the basis of which the Ministry of Health (MoH) with support from partners developed a national operational plan for adolescents to accelerate implementation of HIV and SRH interventions. Further to this, district specific rolling action plans for adolescents HIV and SRH programmes have been recently developed for the City of Kigali. On September 20, 2018 the City of Kigali in collaboration with Rwanda Biomedical Center/HIV Division, UNICEF-Rwanda, UNAIDS and other partners organised a dissemination session for “City of Kigali 5 years HIV and SRH Strategic Plan for 2018-2023” as well as ““City of Kigali HIV and SRH District Action Plan for 2018-2023” at Serena Hotel here in Kigali

Given the high HIV prevalence of 6.3%, Kigali City is clearly the epicenter of HIV epidemic in Rwanda and extra efforts need to be put in place to enable people living with HIV access treatment and the HIV negative population, majority of whom are adolescents and young people access HIV prevention services. The City of Kigali recognizes its role in coordinating the HIV and AIDS response, and is aware of the fact that successful implementation of the HIV and SRH priority interventions is dependent on implementation of evidence based district specific action plans and the city strategic plan, hence the request for technical support.

There are huge gaps in coverage of key interventions such as use of condoms to prevent pregnancy and HIV infection, family planning, male circumcision for HIV prevention, HIV testing and ART for HIV infected individuals.

The HIV Strategic Plan to be implemented in the next five years is expected to reduce the 6.3 per cent prevalence since the last survey in 2015.

During the dissemination session that took place at Serena Hotel on September 20, 2018 Ms Patricia Muhongerwa, City of Kigali vice Mayor in charge of Social Affairs said: “We showed our partners the five-year strategic plan of fighting HIV and the activities planned. We have also implementation plans designed for every urban district” She added that they will also focus on key populations, including sex workers, who are many in the City of Kigali.

Muhammad Semakula, Strategic Advisor at Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) said: “Firstly, we put more efforts in testing to help people know their status in order to take ARVs as early as possible. For now, we have a new strategy of self-testing for people who fear to go to public facilities for testing”. He added that there are other programmes designed for sex workers like monitoring, in which sex partners of people who tested positive are helped to know their HIV status as early as possible

Participants were reminded of the existence of condom kiosks in every hotspots (places with high risk of HIV contamination due to the presence of a big number of sex workers). Those places are Giporoso, Remera in front of the National Stadium, Nyabugogo and so on.

Dr Betru Woldesemayat, UNAIDS Country Director, commended Rwanda’s strong leadership and commitment to advance the Fast Track agenda towards ending AIDS by 2030. “The purpose of Fast Track Cities Initiative is to encourage countries and cities to take concrete actions that lead to reaching the global treatment targets of 90-90-90 by year 2020” he said.

90-90-90 means at least 90 per cent of all people living with HIV know their positive status, 90 per cent of seropositive people receive treatment, while 90 per cent with HIV are no longer infectious.