Mozambican Prime Minister Adriano Maleiane on Tuesday defended bolder public policies based on research and science to combat HIV/AIDS, with the aim of controlling the disease on the African continent.
Maleiane was speaking at the opening of the 17th International Research Conference on Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention of HIV/AIDS in Low-Resource Regions, which brings together experts from the sector, starting this Tuesday and for four days in the Mozambican capital.
“We must continue looking for mechanisms that allow us to consolidate answers guided by scientific evidence, as well as the identification and incorporation of scientific and technological innovations,” declared the minister.
Adriano Maleiane stressed that Africa must promote scientific research, with the aim of producing solutions that contribute to the HIV control by 2030as recommended in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“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, around 26 million are in the sub-saharan africa“, he emphasized.
For his part, John Nkengasong, ambassador for the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), a major funder of the fight against AIDS, called for more action to sustain the gains Africa has made achieved in the fight against the disease.
“After the destruction and tremendous suffering caused by AIDS, remarkable results have been achieved, but much remains to be done,” he stressed.
Interventions in the fight against the disease must be stronger in the most affected sectors of the population, such as adolescents, who are three times more likely to contract HIV/AIDS than the other social segments, he pointed out.
The 17th International Research Conference on HIV Treatment, Pathogenesis and Prevention in Resource Poor Regions meets in Maputo experts from 59 countries and around 700 scientific papers will be presented, of which around 110 are from Mozambican researchers or scientific institutions.
HIV prevalence in Mozambique has slightly decreased to 12.4%, but remains among the highest rates in the worldaccording to the results of the latest survey presented in December by the National Institute of Health (INS).
There are close to two million adults living with the human immunodeficiency virus in the country, that is, one in eight.
Source: Observadora
