Category - Health and HIV & AIDS

The region remains greatly affected by the HIV and AIDS pandemic and contributes a large percentage of the total global HIV/AIDS population.

In most countries in the SADC region, the prevalence rates have either gone down or have stabilized, due to government adopting, formulating and implementing policies that seek to reduce levels of infection, encouraging behavioural change, and providing access to Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), HIV treatment, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), and Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART).

Maternal mortality rates in SADC indicate erratic trends and patterns owing to a number of factors. Major direct causes of maternal mortality in the SADC region include obstetric haemorrhage, obstructed labour, pregnancy induced hypertension, sepsis, and abortion complications.