The First Lady, Dominique Ouattara received in audience Mr. Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director, on Thursday, November 22, 2018. The meeting took place at the presidential residence of the Riviera Golf, and witnessed the presence of Mr. Aka Aoulé, Minister of Health.
It was first for UNAIDS Executive Director to officially submit the first report of the organization on the screening test to the wife of the Head of State in her capacity as UNAIDS Special Ambassador. Then, Mrs. Dominique Ouattara and her distinguished host took stock of the fight against the scourge.
The meeting lasted about thirty minutes during which the personalities were able to cover issues related to the fight against AIDS. At the end of this interview, Mr. Michel Sidibé gave the reasons for his visit.
“We came to discuss about implementation of AIDS control programs in Côte d’Ivoire. It was very interesting to have the discussion in the presence of the Minister of Health. As you know, the First Lady is the UNAIDS Special Ambassador. She is completely committed to the fight against this scourge. As such, she hopes there be no children born with AIDS in Côte d’Ivoire, but also, she wants the treatment to be available to all children born with AIDS. So, it was a little bit to put in place a mechanism that would allow us to go ahead with these programs in order to reach out those mothers who have not been reached yet. We will work together with the Minister of Health to accelerate the process. I also think it was important to meet with the First Lady because we are launching today in Côte d’Ivoire, and for the first time in West and Central Africa, the UNAIDS world report. This report is about AIDS screening test. As you know, we have 9.4 million women, men and children who are not screened. These people do not know if they are HIV positive or not. It was important to us to hand over the report to her “said Michel Sidibé.