MPHIA STUDY SHOWS MALAWI BEATS TWO UNAIDS TARGETS

By Staff Reporter 

The country’s second 2020/2021 Malawi Population-based HIV impact Assessment (MPHIA) survey shows that Malawi has made significant progress toward achieving the UNAIDS 95-95-95 HIV epidemic control targets by 2030. 

A statement from the Ministry of Health, which coincides with World AIDS Day, has attributed the success to innovative measures including HIV testing, timely initiation of antiretroviral treatment (Art) and returning people living with HIV on treatment. 

The MPHIA research indicates that Malawi has so far beat 2 of the 3 targets set by the United Nations agency.  

Its findings say that 88% of adults aged 15 and above living with HIV are aware of their status, 98% of people who know their status are receiving ART and 97 of those on ART have achieved viral load suppression. 

However, the Ministry of Health says despite the 2020/2021 MPHIA report highlighting slow progress in number of people living with HIV who are aware of their status, the figures are better that the last survey held in 2016 when only 77% of adults knew their status. 

The number of new HIV infections annually has also dropped by half from 2016’s 4 out of every 1000 adults to 2 out of every 1000.  

Men have also made remarkable progress in uptake of HIV services unlike in the 2016 research.