The Government acknowledgesthat the prevalence of HIV-AIDS in Mozambique remains high, despite remarkable progress in recent years towards achieving the UNAIDS 95-95 targets.
In other words, 95% of HIV-positive individuals know their status, 95% of those who know their HIV-positive status are on antiviral treatment and 95% of those on treatment achieve viral suppression.
According to the Mozambican Prime Minister, Adriano Maleiane, the percentage of people living with HIV-AIDS who know their HIV status has grown significantly, from 39% in 2015 to 70% in 2021.
However, Maleiane, who was speaking at the opening of the 17th International Research Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention in Resource-Scarce Regions – INTEREST 2023, said “HIV prevalence still remains high in our country and the disease still represents an important cause of death, therefore constituting a public health challenge.”
Maleiane believes that for the control of this disease, in African countries and in the world in general, mechanisms must continue to be sought that allow the consolidation of responses guided by scientific evidence, as well as by the identification and incorporation of scientific and technological innovations.
For Maleiane, the Conference is a unique opportunity to promote actions for the search for scientific evidence and its translation into bolder public policy.
“Therefore, it is our expectation that this Conference will discuss the most recent scientific evidence on HIV in Africa and identify scientific and technological solutions to accelerate the march towards the goals of controlling this disease by 2030”, said the Prime Minister.
On the other hand, at the African continent level, the Prime Minister highlighted progress over the last decade, which can be seen by the fact that the region recorded a reduction of about 44% in the number of new HIV infections and 55% in the number of deaths related to the disease.
While these data are encouraging, he stressed, the African continent has a long way to go considering that, according to UN AIDS statistics for 2021, of the 38 million people living with HIV-AIDS worldwide, about 26 million are in sub-Saharan Africa.
“This picture shows that HIV continues to represent a major public health challenge globally and on the African continent in particular”, he stressed.