"We heard it in the corridors, we heard it in the streets (reports of intentional contamination), but no one has yet had the courage to make these complaints official", said today the director general of the INLS, Lúcia Furtado on the sidelines of the second day of the workshop on the National Strategic Response Plan to HIV/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis.
According to the official, who responded to journalists' complaints about the reappearance of intentional contamination in Angola, she also addressed this matter, two weeks ago, with the Ombudsman, who said she also had no record of complaints.
"I had a meeting two weeks ago with the Ombudsman who also told us that he had not received any complaints of this nature and, therefore, I encourage people who have this type of problem to make the complaint to the authorities for due treatment", he said.
Lúcia Furtado also noted that Angola has not had a stockout of antiretrovirals for two years, ensuring that the country has guaranteed drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS until March 2023.
Since 2020 with the "transition to a drug with fewer side effects and more potent, we had a stock of antiretrovirals that did not allow for ruptures at any time two years ago, we have medication", she noted.
At the workshop, taking place in Luanda, the INLS presented estimates of the HIV/AIDS situation in Angola, noting that 320,000 people are living with HIV in Angola, of which 36,000 are children from zero to 14 years old, 190,000 women, 25,000 HIV-positive pregnant women, 17,000 new infections and 15,000 AIDS-related deaths.
"At the moment, we are in the process of acquiring a new order for the next few years, at the moment we guarantee antiretrovirals until March 2023, we make the quarterly distribution to the provincial health offices", she argued.
An Angolan non-governmental organization denounced, last October, that people with financial stability in the country, including members of the government, deputies, businessmen, police and military, are "deceitfully contaminating many young women" with HIV/AIDS, a phenomenon that "reborn" in the country.
According to the president of the Angolan Network of AIDS and Greater Endemic Diseases Services Organizations (Anaso), a non-governmental organization, António Coelho, the phenomenon of intentional contamination by HIV/AIDS, "which was already more or less controlled, is back" .
"Therefore, people with some financial health from all strata of society, including members of the government, deputies, businessmen, police and military, are currently with this behavior that is the issue of intentional contamination".
"Consciously, these people have been using our young people to pass and spread the epidemic and we also have to carry out a study to understand what factors have been contributing to having this phenomenon back", pointed out António Coelho.
Speaking on the sidelines of Anaso's monthly meeting on World AIDS Day 2022, the organization's president pointed to intentional contamination as one of the main factors contributing to the high rate of the epidemic in Angola.
The high level of poverty in Angola, the high mobility of the population and the early onset of sexual activity by young women aged 10 to 14 involved in prostitution, António Coelho stressed, are also among the main factors behind the increase in HIV/AIDS in Angola. country.
