Morocco, a Success Story in Fighting Aids in MENA Region – UNAIDS

Thanks to its steady efforts in fighting AIDS prevalence, Morocco was commended by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), which lauded in its latest report the Kingdom as a model in the MENA region.

UNAIDS highlighted in the report, issued last Thursday, that Morocco has achieved impressive results in fighting HIV, which makes of it one of the most successful countries in the MENA region in this regards.

The report indicates that 2016 estimates show a very low HIV prevalence (0.1% of the population), adding that the number of people living with HIV is 22,000, with 1,000 new HIV cases and 700 AIDS-linked deaths in 2016, while the number of new HIV infections dropped by 37% between 2011 and 2016.

UNAIDS said under the nationwide program of HIV prevention, nearly 150,000 pregnant women underwent HIV testing in 2016 in an effort to prevent transmission from mothers to their babies, against 43,000 in 2012. The number of HIV positive pregnant women admitted in health centers in the year 2016 was 215, with a rise in the coverage rate from 33% in 2011 to 62% in 2016.

The said rate exceeds the one associated with the MENA region, which is less that 20%, the reported noted.

The report also highlighted that the development of screening services through the setting up of 70 centers belonging to civil society associations enabled to carry out more than 2.6 million HIV tests since the year 2012. The proportion of people living with HIV who know their HIV status have increased from 37% (in 2011) to 63% (by the end of 2016), exceeding the proportion of 53% in the MENA region.