Malawi has almost one million estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS (924,800 PLWHA – UNAIDS 2009). Malawi’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate (the percent of people living with HIV) is almost twice the rate in sub Saharan Africa overall (14.2% compared with 7.5% in 2006 UNAIDS).
The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses significant challenges to Malawi as a low income country, which has been exacerbated by high levels of food insecurity. In 2001 the Government of Malawi formed the National Aids Commission (NAC) and to coordinate the country’s response to HIV/AIDS, the government developed the Malawi National HIV AIDS Policy (2003), the National HIV/AIDS strategic Framework (2000 – 2004) to coordinate the country’s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the Malawi HIV and AIDS Extended National Framework (NAF) 2010 – 2012 with the national ARV scale up plan 2006 – 2010 and the new National HIV Prevention Strategy 2009 – 2013.
