20101203
africanews

About 5,319 HIV/AIDS cases were reported in Morocco at the end of September, with young women aged 15-24 making up 62 per cent of cases.

Nadia Bezzad, chairperson of the Pan African AIDS Control Organisation (OPALS) told Morocco's Arabic language daily Al Massae that heterosexual sex was the main mode of transmission (87 per cent) in Morocco, a country with an estimated population of 30 million.

About 25 per cent of HIV-positive women were infected by their husbands, and the HIV prevalence rate among female sex workers is 2.4 per cent, according to reports released during last World AIDS Day in Morocco, Pana said on Friday

OPALS says it will organise a series of prevention programmes for the groups most exposed to the risk of HIV infection, notably youths, women, migrants, refugee women and sex workers.

The Moroccan health ministry recently launched a strategic plan to control AIDS, with the aim to provide free HIV testing and antiretroviral treatment.