ADDIS ABABA, April 4 (Xinhua) -- The Ethiopian Ministry of Heath has unveiled a new National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Strategic Plan to control the spread of the disease.
The plan, during the course of the coming four years, will coordinate national efforts toward controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS and reducing the rate of new infections and deaths, the Ethiopian Ministry of Health said in a statement issued late Wednesday.
It envisages reducing the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate to less than 1 per 10,000 people at the national level, the ministry said.
In-depth trainings are provided to all actors of the plan, including representatives of 300 districts with high HIV/AIDS prevalence rate.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ethiopia has observed "remarkable progress" over the past two decades in reducing HIV/AIDS rate from 3.3 percent in 2000 to 0.9 percent in 2017, and AIDS-related deaths from 83,000 deaths in 2000 to 15,600 in 2017.
Recent HIV epidemiology of Ethiopia is heterogeneous, with significant variations in the burden of HIV across geographic areas and population groups. The urban HIV prevalence is seven times higher than in the rural, the UNFPA said.
Data from the World Health Organization show that an estimated 25.6 million people were living with HIV in 2022 in Africa, of which an estimated 20.9 million people were receiving antiretroviral therapy. ■
