Infectious diseases account for 63 percent of deaths in Africa – WHO official

Communicable diseases account for 63 percent of deaths in the African region, with emphasis on HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, according to the regional director of the World Health Organization for Africa, Luis Gomes Sambo. Luis Sambo who was speaking at the opening session of the first meeting on Medical Education, sponsored by the Faculty of Medicine of Agostinho Neto University, mentioned the HIV / AIDS as the responsible for 38.5 percent of deaths from communicable diseases and for 15.6 percent of all deaths in the region. Despite these facts, the African region has made progress toward fighting against HIV / AIDS, with the addition of coverage of interventions with antiretroviral to reduce the mother-to child transmission. He also spoke of the increase in coverage of antiretroviral treatment from 100,000 people in 2003 to 6.2 million in 2011, but the annual incidence of infection by the disease is still very high with 1.7 million new...