The Angolan Network of AIDS and Great Endemic Diseases Service Organizations (Anaso), in a message on the balance of 2022 and perspectives for 2023, sent this Thursday to Lusa, said that last year it registered "limitations in access to antiretrovirals and disruption of stock" of other health products.
"We have once again registered an increase in cases of intentional transmission and practices of stigma and discrimination associated with HIV that are alienating people living with the disease in the fight against the epidemic in Angola", reads the message.
Anaso also said that it had not been able to rescue the different HIV community services that were closed at the time of covid-19 and that it had registered the closure of services from community organizations due to lack of funds.
In 2022, "there was a large reduction in community HIV/AIDS activities that could compromise the country's efforts so that we can end AIDS as a public health problem by 2030", he added.
The NGO argued that the rise in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths justifies taking more action and making more funds available.
According to Anaso, which estimates that more than 300,000 HIV-positive people live in the country, Angola is among the 25 countries with the highest number of new HIV infections among adolescents and young people in the world.
At least 16,000 people die annually in Angola from HIV/AIDS, as pointed out by Anaso in October 2022.
Every day, he said, "about 20 new HIV infections occur among adolescents and young people aged 15 to 24 in Angola".
The major challenges for 2023 involve "improving coordination" between the Government and civil society, through the operation of the National Commission for the Fight against AIDS and Major Endemic Diseases.
According to the note signed by the president of the organization, António Coelho, the other major challenge is the greater participation of civil society organizations that work on HIV in social consultation spaces at provincial and municipal level for the deepening of these issues.
"We need to solve the problem of the sustainability of the community response to HIV/AIDS, so we have to fight for Anaso to be an institution of public utility", he underlined.
Increasing the population's access to primary health care, "and that means investing in health", and the elaboration of a national community health policy are still among the challenges pointed out by the organization for 2023.
