HEALTH | BYANYIMA | HIV

The executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Winnie Byanyima, has said people living with HIV are at higher risk of contracting COVID-19, but have lower access to vaccines.

 “Indeed, access to COVID-19 vaccines around the world remains exceedingly unequal and unjust,” she said in a tweet on Tuesday.

The former Oxfam International executive director and Mbarara Municipality MP had earlier noted that inequity in COVID-19 vaccines amounted to a global crisis.

“Donations alone will not get us out of this crisis. We need to boost supply production,” she said.

She stated that it is “obscene” that COVID-19 vaccines are going to waste and be disposed of in rich countries whilst health workers and vulnerable people in developing countries beg for protection.

“Vaccine Apartheid should be a stain on our global conscience. How can we rectify the grossly unequal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines? How can we tackle HIV, COVID-19 and future health crises effectively? We must fight the pandemic of inequality first,” she urged.