A health practitioner takes a blood sample from a patient for HIV testing. Photo Shutterstock
In the last six months, 11 thousand people have been diagnosed with the disease in Somalia, which shows how fast this disease is spreading across the country.
The committee to prevent HIV/AIDS in Somalia is conducting awareness training on the dangers of this disease in Mogadishu, which they are doing for different sectors of the society.
According to the chairman of the HIV/AIDS prevention committee in Somalia, Ahmed Mohamed Jimale, who spoke to VOA, said that efforts are being made to raise public awareness about this disease.
“The number of new people diagnosed with this disease in the last six months is 11,000. There are also people who have come forward, we have made an umbrella for them and it has been working for a while,” he said.
Ahmed Mohamed Jimale also said that there are more people who have not yet identified themselves and who are living with the disease than those who have identified themselves in the umbrella created by the committee and their condition is constantly being monitored.
“The people who have expressed themselves in the umbrella are one thousand seven hundred and strong, there are more than those who are not expressing themselves in the community.”
He added, “There are 4,419 people who regularly take medicines. This shows the seriousness of this disease in Somalia.”
Ahmed has finally asked the senior leaders of the federal government of Somalia to provide financial and political support, because the people living with the disease are the poorest people in the society and they are discriminated against.