We should not ignore the inequalities that persist in Benin in terms of access to prevention, screening and viral load reduction actions, said Friday the Minister of Health, Benjamin Hounkpatin, who emphasized the demedicalization approach in the response to HIV/AIDS.
“It is to remedy these inequalities that Benin has opted for the strategy of demedicalizing HIV testing with a view to increasing the number of people living with HIV who know their serological status, the good coverage of of HIV services, as well as the involvement of judicial police officers,” Hounkpatin said in an interview with Xinhua the day after the celebration of World AIDS Day.
At the end of 2021, Benin reached the rate of 85% with regard to the knowledge of their serological status among people infected with HIV, 99% for the initiation of antiretroviral treatment and 79% for the suppression of the viral load among people put on antiretrovirals, he rejoiced.
The prevalence of HIV infection is 0.95% among pregnant women, according to the 2021 national sentinel serosurveillance survey.
However, in the analysis of this study, this prevalence is higher in urban areas than in rural areas (1.18% against 0.52%) and pockets of prevalence above the national average are observed in the key population group, in particular female sex workers (7.2%), men who have sex with men (8.3%) and people who inject drugs (2.1%).