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Malawi steps up Aids fight
16/07/2007 17:57 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Health officials in Malawi were preparing on Monday to launch a massive HIV testing programme to identify tens of thousands of people unknowingly infected with the virus.
Many of the estimated 14% of Malawian adults who are HIV-positive do not know they are infected, jeopardising efforts to stop the spread of HIV/Aids among sexually active teenagers and adults, the government has said.
Malawi hopes to administer voluntary HIV tests to about
130 000 people this week, according to its health department, which estimated only 1 million of Malawi's 6 million sexually active population knew their HIV status.
"This implies that the majority of Malawians do not know
that they are carrying the virus because they have not gone for
a test, a situation that poses a great threat to prevention
efforts," said health authorities.
Mother-to-child transmission
Malawi has already lost an estimated 1 million people to
Aids since the disease first surfaced in the 1980s, straining
its tiny health-care system and devastating agricultural
production, the lifeblood of the local economy.
The impoverished nation continues to struggle to find enough
money to put in place grassroots HIV-prevention efforts,
especially in rural areas where HIV infection rates are still
rising, in contrast to the declines seen in cities.
Almost 30 000 newborns are infected every year because of
the government's failure to prevent mother-to-child transmission, and only a fraction of those living with HIV have
access to life-saving anti-retroviral drugs, according to
officials.
But Aids activists have praised Malawi for its hands-on
approach to fighting the disease, noting that it was one of the
first nations in sub-Saharan Africa to implement a regular
national HIV testing programme.
The current testing programme costs about $1.5m.
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