Number of AIDS-infected people rises in Sudan

The number of Sudanese people infected with AIDS is up amid low level of awareness about the threats of the disease as well as means of its transmission and prevention from it, according to Sudan's official statistics. "The AIDS infection rate among Sudanese people hit 79,514 cases, 8,516 of them are new cases. Additionally, 5,417 AIDS-related death cases have been registered during 2013," said Sudan's Health Ministry in a statement on the occasion of the World AIDS Day. The ministry, in collaboration with Sudan National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP), on Sunday organized a celebration on the occasion of the World AIDS Day in Khartoum in the presence of representatives of national and international NGOs and sectors active in the field of the disease control. Sudanese Health Minister Bahar Idris Abu Garada, addressing the celebration, announced that his ministry, in cooperation with the United Nations, is launching a wide-range campaign for AIDS voluntary screening that would last till the end of current December. He said the campaign comes as part of an initiative for speeding up HIV/AIDS screening and treatment to fill in the gaps in the provision of services at the medical centers to achieve the national goals on the disease control and expand the base of the comprehensive treatment and care services. "We reiterate our commitment to control AIDS and achieve the international principles on the disease control. We have exerted considerable efforts in this respect and we work to provide treatment and care services for the infected people and reactivate the disease screening services," the minister noted. He said the national motto for this year focuses on treatment to improve the health of the infected people and enhance the prevention from the disease, urging the international partners to focus on the treatment and prevention services. Sudan's National AIDS Programme (SNAP) Director General Mohamed Osman Hamid, for his part, said that "we are celebrating today with a specific goal in our consideration which is to make Sudan free of AIDS." "Focusing on treating the infected people is likely to achieve the international principles on the disease control, the reason why the celebration focuses this year on treatment and prevention services," he noted. Earlier the SNAP announced that among each 10,000 citizens there are 42 AIDS infected people, adding that the number of children infected with AIDS amounted to 1,290, with three children born infected with AIDS every day. International organizations operating in the field of AIDS control in Sudan are complaining of lack of accurate information about the spread of the disease besides the lack in the programs of awareness with the disease, means of its transmission and means of prevention. Many factors have contributed to the rabid spreading of the disease in Sudan including the fact that Sudan lies on what is known as the "AIDS belt" besides the displacement movement due to internal wars. The Sudanese Health Ministry, in coordination with the concerned United Nations agencies, is adopting a plan to provide accurate information about the number of AIDS infected people, facilitate access to them, raise the level of awareness with the disease and end what is known as the social stigma, which the AIDS patients are suffering from. It is to be noted that the first AIDS infection case in Sudan was discovered in 1986 after which the National Committee for AIDS Control was established and which later became Sudan National AIDS Control Programme (SNAP).