ALGIERS – Monday, 04 December 2023 (APS) – The national response to HIV/AIDS enabled achieving “undeniable progress” in the fight against this pathology, affirmed Monday, in Algiers, the Minister of Health Abdelhak Saihi, reiterating Algeria’s commitment to containing the spread of the virus.
“Thanks to the multisectoral national response to HIV/AIDS, our country has made undeniable progress and the epidemic remains less active, with a prevalence of 0.1%,” said the minister at the opening of a meeting celebrating the World AIDS Day.
In this regard, he “reaffirmed Algeria’s commitment to meeting all the possible means to contain the spread of this pathology,” as part of the UN program aimed at eradicating it by 2030 and through the national strategic plan IST/HIV/Sida 2020-2024.
“This commitment was reflected in the total mobilization of the government and all the players, particularly the civil society, to ensure a universal and free access to all health services, including screening and treatment,” added Saihi.
The minister of Health lamented “the risky behaviors leading to the exposure to HIV” such as the lack of the use of prevention means, the consumption of injection drug, the phenomena of migration, which, he added, “requires remaining vigilant,” affirming that the prevention and the fight against AIDS will be a priority.
In this respect, he underlined that Algeria’s objectives in the fight against AIDS consist in speeding up the response, notably among the population at risk, eliminating the transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and mother-to-child syphilis.