Plan to eliminate HIV/AIDS by 2030, rate recedes to 0.02% in 2018: MoH

CAIRO – 8 September 2018: The Ministry of Health has set a plan to eliminate HIV/AIDS by 2030, Alaa Eid, head of Preventive Medicine Sector at the Ministry of Health, told Egypt Today on Friday.

Under the slogan, “Health for All: Preventing Stigma in Health Facilities,” the plan aims at eliminating the HIV infection rate. Eid confirmed that in 2018, the infection rate reached less than 0.02%.

He also added that the ministry provides the necessary attention to HIV patients as well as increasing tests and creating a follow-up system with a regular treatment.

Moreover, the National Programme on Prevention and Control of HIV/AIDS, according to Eid, managed to provide all the registered HIV patients with the necessary treatment and medicine for free.

Eid also affirmed that another program that aimed at preventing the virus from being transmitted to infants of mothers with HIV has shown full success.

According to data provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations AIDS, Egypt has one of the lowest rates of HIV infection in the world.

The plan to eradicate HIV in Egypt was first announced by the spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr. Khaled Mujahid in an official statement.

In 2017, the UN expressed concern that HIV was on the rise in Egypt, it stated that the number of new cases was growing by up to 40 percent a year.

Tests and treatment for HIV/AIDS patients are being provided through 24 centers in 18 governorates all over Egypt.

Additional reporting by Walid Abdelsalam.