MAPUTO, Dec. 2– Mozambique recorded 44,000 HIV/AIDS-related deaths in 2024, including 10,000 children, Prime Minister Maria Benvinda Levi has said, warning of “the magnitude of the challenge” despite improved access to treatment.
Speaking in the capital, Maputo, on Monday, Levi noted that the country also registered 92,000 new infections over the past year, including 34,000 among adolescents and young people, who accounted for 37 percent of all new cases.
Girls and young women remain disproportionately affected, she noted, stressing that “for every new infection in boys, adolescent males and young men aged 15 to 24, there were three new infections in adolescent girls and young women in the same age group.”
Levi said the government has strengthened measures to combat the virus, expanding access to antiretroviral treatment, now dispensed quarterly and semiannually, and increasing testing nationwide.
“Around 87 percent of people living with HIV know their HIV status, 95 percent are on treatment, and 91 percent have a suppressed viral load. We are close to the global 95-95-95 targets,” said the prime minister.
Despite these gains, Mozambique remains one of the countries most severely affected by HIV globally, underscoring the urgency of strengthening the national response. (Namibia Daily News/Xinhua)
