For a better health assistance of AIDS sufferers

HAMMAMET - Works of a regional meeting (Middle East and North Africa) on means to enhance the ability of persons suffering from AIDS to cope with the disease opened, on Monday, in Hammamet.

Representatives of the regional support team of UN AIDS and the World Fund for fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria for the Middle East and North Africa took part in this three-day meeting.

It appears from statistics presented on this occasion that the HIV/AIDS is blamed for the death of 22 million persons. The number of people living with the virus in the world reached 33 millions.

This number is estimated in the Middle East and North Africa region at 380 thousand person (2007).

The meeting will review novelties in matters of treatment of this disease and shed light on the various measures and orientations adopted in this respect.

It also aimed at strengthening the role of intervening parties and the civil society, particularly in setting adequate strategies for a better quality of care and an optimum psychological and social care for persons living with AIDS.

Chairing the opening works, secretary of state in charge of hospitals Najoua Miladi notably called for strengthening co-operation and co-ordination between all intervening parties to design new mechanisms likely to combat this scourge and curb its social and economic impact.

TAP