Rabat - HIV and AIDS awareness programs in Morocco are “superficial,” which prevents the country’s youth from realizing the risk of contracting the disease through their sexual behaviors, according to Azzouz Tusi, the head of the Rabat branch of the African Organization for Combatting AIDS.
Rabat – HIV and AIDS awareness programs in Morocco are “superficial,” which prevents the country’s youth from realizing the risk of contracting the disease through their sexual behaviors, according to Azzouz Tusi, the head of the Rabat branch of the African Organization for Combatting AIDS.
The sociopsychologist said almost half of those affected by the immune system-suppressing disease are unaware that they are carrying the virus, which infects 1,200 Moroccans every year, the latest national data shows.
The 50 percent ignorance is huge improvement compared to state of HIV/AIDS testing in Morocco in 2011. Health officials estimated at the time that seven of ten people who had the disease did not know of their health condition.
Drug users, prostitutes and homosexuals are not the only groups at risk for contracting AIDS, Tusi said, adding that the categories make up five percent of virus-carrying Moroccans, each. Still, its spread remains limited to 0.1 of the nation’s population – 90 percent of whom will have access to life-saving medications in the coming decade, which will lead to the epidemic’s end by the year 2030, according to Moroccan Health Ministry’s stated goals.
The prevalence of AIDS varies widely across the kingdom, with the Souss-Massa-Draa region seeing a quarter of all cases, the Marrakech-Tensift-El Haouz region reporting 21 percent and the Casablanca-Settat region taking a 20 percent share.
“The number of cases differs from one region to the next because the youth are the most at risk of contracting the disease due to their sexual activities,” Tusi said.
