HIV/AIDS killed 37,000 in Mozambique last year – Watch

MAPUTO, Mozambique 

Last year (2022) in Mozambique, 37,000 people died of HIV/AIDS, and more than 150,000 patients abandoned their antiretroviral treatment. TVM reports.

Mozambique has one of the highest rates of seroprevalence in the world.

Mozambique’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate dropped from 13.2% 12.5%, although the provinces of Maputo, Maputo City, Zambézia and Gaza still have prevalence rates above 15%.

The deaths also dropped by 2,000, but the mortality rate remains high.

"Around 37,000 deaths, in 2022 alone, is worth pointing out and is a very serious problem,” said chairman of the Parliamentary Office for the Prevention and Combat of HIV/AIDS Fernando Lavieque, who was sharing the epidemiological situation in the country, particularly new infections.

The provinces of Zambézia, Nampula and Sofala have high levels of new infections – over 10,000 new cases in just one year.

The figures are contained in the document presented in parliament on Wednesday by the Parliamentary Office for the Prevention and Combat of HIV/AIDS, summarising work carried out from October, 2022, to March, 2023.

"Mozambique has one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world,” Lavieque said.

The evolutionary trend of new infections trended upwards until 2012, with a downward trend until 2022, “with about 54,000 new infections for women, 30,000 cases of new infections for men and 13,000 cases of new infections for children”.

"Estimates also show a reduction in HIV mortality, new infections and mother-to-child transmission, as a result of the different interventions carried out,” he explained.

The report indicates that cultural factors continue to discourage the uptake of disease prevention and treatment methods in a country wherein 2022, close to 2.4 million people were living with HIV of which 94 percent were aged 15 and over.

Cited by Radio Mozambique, Lavieque also said that the country had made progress in providing methods for preventing and treating the disease.

“The increase in the number of health units with ART [Anti-Retroviral Treatment] service in Mozambique from 2003 to 2023 increased coverage from 1% to 96%,” he said.