Tanzania cuts HIV/AIDS deaths by half in decade

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania

Tanzania has halved the number of HIV/AIDS fatalities in the past decade as a result of multiple public health interventions to quell the disease, officials said Wednesday.

The HIV/AIDS death toll in Tanzania has dropped by 50% from 64,000 in 2010 to 32,000 last year, thanks to awareness campaigns and life-prolonging drugs, the government said.

Jenister Mhagama, the minister of state in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for policy coordination, said the achievement is a product of multiple public health interventions to scale up the antiretroviral (ARV) program.

“These statistics show there is a rising use of antiretroviral drugs and people are much more aware and go for HIV testing to know their status,” Mhagama said at the official launch of an HIV/AIDS campaign in Dar es Salaam.

About 1.6 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania in 2018. In the same year, 72,000 were newly infected with HIV and 24,000 people died from the disease, according to the government data.

But unlimited access to ARV drugs for those infected substantially reduced the number of people dying from HIV/AIDS, officials said.

As recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), the East African country adopted a policy, making anyone testing positive for HIV eligible for immediate treatment irrespective of the status of their body immunity.

This initiative significantly increased ARV coverage with 1.1 million HIV-positive people, equivalent to 71%, receiving the life-prolonging drugs.

According to Mhagama, the rate of new HIV infections has also fallen from 7% in 2003 to 4.7% in 2017.

She added that the number of infected adults dropped from 110,000 in 2010 to 68,000 last year.

Leonard Maboko, the executive director of Tanzania Commission of Aids, said Tanzanians are increasingly sensitized to test and know their HIV status, and those who are found to be infected get the treatment.

“The fall in HIV deaths and new infections is a result of ongoing efforts to raise public awareness about the virus and the increased use of ARV drug,” he said.