MAPUTO, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Despite being listed among the 10 countries most affected by AIDS in the world with more than 1.5 million people infected, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced progress in the fight against the virus on Thursday in Maputo.
Nyusi told participants in the official ceremony to memorize the World AIDS Day that efficient communication based in the community using local languages could be efficient in fighting AIDS.
"From 2011 to 2013, we have registered a drop of sexual transmission by 25 percent, we also registered a drop of transmission from mother to child by nearly half from 11.9 percent in 2012 to 6.2 percent in 2015. We want to assure that by the end of this year, over 950,000 citizens infected will be going through treatment from which 170,000 are children," said Nyusi.
Despite the progress, Nyusi admitted that it is still important to improve the levels of health access to patients living with AIDS.
Still on Thursday, authorities expressed concern for the fact that young people aged between 15 and 24 years old are among the main infected by HIV.
The National Council for the Fight Against Aids said that the statistics over HIV/AIDS in the country remain those announced years ago with the prevalence of 11.5 percent, with women more affected than men at 13.2 percent against 9.1 percent respectively.
On the other hand, health authorities reported an increase of deaths among the patients of HIV/AIDS in southern Gaza province, the most infected of the country at 25.1 percent.
According to the provincial health authorities, from December last year to September this year, over 2,000 people died of AIDS, an increase of 1,070 deaths compared to the records from December 2014 to September 2015.
"The provincial health directorate is expanding health access to smaller unities, we also have mobile clinics to approach treatment to patients," said Rogerio Moreira, provincial coordinator of National Council in the Fight Against AIDS in Gaza.
The coordinator hoped that with these actions, it will be possible to bring change to the status of the virus in Gaza.
