GENEVA, 14 December 2020—UNAIDS is saddened by the death of the Prime Minister of Eswatini, Ambrose Dlamini, who has died after testing positive for the new coronavirus.
“The HIV response has lost a champion,” said Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director. “He was a friend of UNAIDS and helped to steer his country to great successes in the HIV response. We will miss him.”
Mr Dlamini took an active role in the response to HIV in Eswatini, and the National AIDS Council and the Country Coordinating Mechanism in Eswatini of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria reported directly to him.
Mr Dlamini was present for the launch of Seizing the moment, a UNAIDS report on the global AIDS epidemic, in July 2020, at which he spoke about Eswatini’s success in surpassing the 90–90–90 targets, whereby 90% of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status are accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment have suppressed viral loads.
“We have achieved 95–95–95,” he said. “We cannot rest on our successes, nor be discouraged by setbacks. We must ensure that no one is left behind. We must close the gaps. We are aiming for 100–100–100,” he added.
UNAIDS
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
