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Rabat – Access to AIDS treatment increased in Morocco from 16 percent in 2010 to 48 percent in 2016, due to the “revision of treatment programs,” according to a Global Aids Update 2017 issued by UNAIDS.
UNAIDS asserts that the Middle East and North Africa recorded the most AIDS-related deaths in the world. The annual number of adults and children dying due to AIDS-related illnesses increased from an estimated 3,600 in 2000 to more than 11,000 in 2016.
In Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, AIDS-related deaths more than doubled between 2000 and 2010. This is due either to increasing incidences or limited access to treatment.
To expand its strategy for fighting the disease, Morocco has adopted the World Health Organization’s recommendation necessitating that antiretroviral therapy should be initiated for every person living with HIV at any CD4 cell count. The report explained that this has lead to more access to Aids treatment.
In countries where treatment coverage has expanded, including Morocco, AIDS-related deaths have decreased significantly since 2010, said the report.
According to international standards, HIV testing is available mostly through public health facilities.Due to the stigma associated with the disease, however, most Arab countries, including Morocco and Sudan,run community testing campaigns for key populations and in locations where HIV risk is high.
In Morocco, testing campaigns have lead to knowledge of HIV status among people living with HIV rise from 52 percent to 63 percent, states the report.
Worldwide, 36.7 million people still live with AIDS, yet 23 per cent of people living with the disease do not have access to treatment, said the same source.
