Tanzania, U.S. mark 15 years of alliance in the fight against HIV/AIDS

DAR ES SALAAM, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania and the United States on Wednesday marked 15 years of partnership in the fight against HIV/AIDS through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

U.S. Acting Ambassador to Tanzania, Inmi Patterson, said PEPFAR recently passed an important milestone enabling it to provide lifesaving treatment to more than one million Tanzanians living with HIV.

"During this campaign, we will work with you all and with people living with HIV across the country. I encourage Tanzanians to get tested and learn their health status," she said in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

Ummy Mwalimu, the east African nation's Minister for Health, said through the U.S.-funded program, HIV/AIDS related deaths in the country decreased by 70 per cent, from 110,000 in 2003 to 33,000 in 2016.

According to statistics by the Tanzania Commission for AIDS, Tanzania has an estimated 1.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS, but only 52 percent of them are aware of their condition.

The disease has mostly affected the youth aged between 14 and 25 years, according to the commission. Enditem