The Sunday News
Tinomuda Chakanyuka, Senior Reporter
HEALTH and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa has been elected vice president of the Society for Aids in Africa (SAA) executive council, a position he will hold until 2021.
SAA is the custodian of International Conference on Aids and STIs in Africa Icasa.
Icasa is a biennial and bilingual (English & French) conference that convenes 7 000 to 10 000 plus delegates.
Dr Parirenyatwa’s election into the SAA executive council comes as he also got elected the World health Organisation (WHO) 71st Assembly president last week.
In the SAA executive council Dr Parirenyatwa deputises Prof John Idoko of Nigeria.
Others elected into the executive council include Prof Tandakha Ndiaye Dieye from Senegal (secretary-general), Mrs Sahra Guleid from Somaliland (deputy secretary-general), Dr Namwinga Chintu from Zambia (treasurer) and Prof Samuel Elias Kalluvya of Tanzania (deputy treasurer).
The executive council elections were held at the SAA Permanent Secretariat, located at Adjiringanor, East Legon in Ghana.
SAA’s first board was established in Kinshasa in October 1990 during the 5th International Conference on Aids and Associated Cancers in Africa, a precursor to the Icasa.
Prof John Idoko, in his inaugural speech after being elected emphasised the need to train younger research scientists to improve research towards achieving 90-90-90 goals to end Aids.
He further stressed that HIV/Aids pandemic for past four decades taught us a lot and we need those experiences to efficiently tackle other emerging deceases like ebola, zika, hepatitis, cancer, tuberculosis among others set to destabilise our efforts, adding that there were areas that the organisation would have to expand its scope to have better health for all.
In a statement after the election, the Icasa permanent secretariat said the formation of SAA had empowered Africans to address and respond to the challenges posed by HIV/Aids on the continent.
“The formation of SAA with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) brought to an end, the practice of organising the International Conference on Aids in Africa, outside the African continent,” the statement read.
Dr Parirenyatwa’s election as vice-president of SAA executive council and president of the World Health Organisation (WHO) 71st Assembly inside one month speaks volumes of strides made by the country in health delivery.
At the WHO 71st Assembly Dr Parirenyatwa takes over from Professor Veronica Skvortsova, Minister of Healthcare of the Russian Federation who presided over the assembly last year.
The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of WHO.
The Health Assembly is held annually in Geneva, Switzerland and the 71st session ended yesterday.
@irielyan
