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The Min­istry of Health will ex­pand com­mu­ni­ty-based HIV test­ing and in­crease ac­cess to self-test­ing next year as it push­es to strength­en re­ten­tion in care and roll out a na­tion­al an­ti-stig­ma cam­paign.

Of­fi­cials say tar­get­ed in­ter­ven­tions for vul­ner­a­ble groups and greater psy­choso­cial sup­port for peo­ple liv­ing with HIV will form part of the 2026 plan, along­side deep­er col­lab­o­ra­tion with civ­il so­ci­ety groups.

To­day’s World AIDS Day ob­ser­vance comes un­der the glob­al theme, “Over­com­ing Dis­rup­tion Trans­form­ing the AIDS Re­sponse.” The Min­istry says the aim is to main­tain mo­men­tum and close re­main­ing gaps in pre­ven­tion, treat­ment and dis­crim­i­na­tion.