HIV infection rate drops
By Witness Chipwere:
The National Aids Commission (Nac) has disclosed that cases of new HIV infections have dropped.
The commission’s statistics indicate that it recorded 19,000 cases of infection in 2021, a figure that declined to 17,600 in 2022.
This represents a reduction rate of 18.7 percent.
Nac Corporate Service and Public Relations Officer Kalen Msiska attributed the development to interventions that were put in place to stem cases of HIV infection.
Msiska cited the introduction of pre-exposure prophylaxis and post-exposure prophylaxis drugs among strategies that have borne fruit.
“Among high-risk people, we identified groups such as female and male sex workers, homosexuals and people who inject themselves with drugs.
“We are deliberately targeting this population because they have the highest risk of spreading the virus to other populations,” Msiska said.
However, health rights activist Maziko Matemba has said the development should not prompt Malawians to sit on their laurels.
“There is a lot of work to be done so that we can reduce cases of new HIV infection to at least 11,000 annually,” he said.
