Africa-Press – Angola. The provinces of Cunene, Cuando Cubango, Moxico and Lundas Norte and Sul continue to have the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the country, the president of the Angolan AIDS Services Network (ANASO) said yesterday.
António Coelho told that the epidemic in these provinces is concentrated in urban areas, with a rate of over four percent. “Angola currently has 36,000 children and 190 women infected with HIV,” he said.
Based on the estimates presented in 2021, he explained, the prevalence of infection of the disease tends to affect the age group from 15 to 39 years old more. “The situation remains worrying and in some cases alarming, mainly due to the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reduced the attention given to other epidemics”.
The president of ANASO also added that antiretrovirals continue to be free, “but only 45 percent of people take the treatment”. Due to this attitude, he criticized, the abandonment rate of infected patients has been very high, “around the 48 percent”. “Many people start treatment for the disease and then drop out, fundamentally for lack of social support,” he said.
Poverty, he said, basic sanitation and illiteracy are the main concerns of the population and contribute greatly to the increase in new cases in Angola. “Stigma and discrimination are among the main obstacles to preventing and fighting the epidemic”, he justified, in addition to adding that more than 30 percent of the population discriminates against people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. happens only in Angola, but in the world”.
Despite the Executive’s continued efforts, he said, and the interest of much of civil society, new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths continue to increase every day. “An average of 20 new HIV infections occur daily among adolescents and young people aged 15 to 24″, he lamented.
From July 29 to August 2 of this year, he said, the International Conference on HIV/AIDS was held in Montreal, Canada, where world leaders, especially Africans and international partners, were encouraged to give life to a ” Global Alliance” capable of ending the disease, especially among children.
As one of the participants, António Coelho urged government officials to urgently increase funding in the fight against AIDS. “The recommendations from this conference must be applied in practice, as political leadership is important to ending this epidemic and saving millions of people,” he advised.
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