There were 1 000 000 [980 000 – 1 100 000] living with HIV in Malawi in 2017. The HIV prevalence rate among adults aged 15 to 49 is 9.6%.

39 000 [35 000 – 51 000] people became newly infected with HIV in 2017 and there were 17 000 [13 000 – 23 000] AIDS-related deaths, a decline of 50% since 2010. It is estimated that 71% [66 – 77] of people living with HIV have access to antiretroviral medicines. The proportion of children aged 0 – 14 years old living with HIV having access to antiretroviral medicines is 63% [47 – 73].

Among pregnant women living with HIV, 92% [75 - >95] have access to treatment to prevent transmission of HIV to their children.

The key populations most affected by HIV in Malawi are:

• Sex workers, with an HIV prevalence of 60%.
• Gay men and other men who have sex with men, with an HIV prevalence of 17.3%.

Although the country has recorded a significant reduction in new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths; adolescent girls, young women and other key populations, particularly in urban areas, continue to bear the highest burden of the epidemic.

The country has aligned its National HIV and AIDS Strategy (2015–2020) to the 90–90–90 targets and has adopted a test and start strategy, which calls for all people living with HIV to be initiated on antiretroviral therapy irrespective of the CD4 cell count or clinical stage. 

Visit the Malawi country page for more data and related resources.

Malawi: remember where we have come from to move forward

Dan Namarika, the Principal Secretary for Health in Malawi, graduated from the College of Medicine in 1999 as one of the first students to follow their entire medical training in Malawi. His long career as a medical doctor, which included four years as personal physician to the late President Bingu wa Mutharika, was prompted by a desire to act against AIDS.

“The reason I chose medicine was because of AIDS. I couldn’t believe there was an illness like this with no cure. I remember the first case in my neighbourhood. It was a lady who succumbed to AIDS after a chronic illness. I have had family members that have died. My long history has been impacted on by AIDS,” he says.

Read the full story

Changing the lives of transgender people in Malawi

Lesbian, Intersex, Transgender and other Extensions (LITE) started out in 2016 as a support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) people in Lilongwe, Malawi. “There was so much commonality in the challenges facing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people that this motivated me to form a nongovernmental organization addressing these issues,” says Lawrence Phiri Chipili, Executive Director of LITE, who is a transgender man.

Since its formation in 2016 and its formal registration in 2017, LITE has navigated its way into important national platforms, including the Malawi National AIDS Commission’s technical working group that guides the multisectoral AIDS response.

Read the full story

Voluntary medical male circumcision accelerating in Malawi

Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) remains the only one-time intervention for reducing the risk of HIV infection. The procedure provides lifelong partial protection against female-to-male HIV transmission and should be used as part of wider sexual and reproductive health service provision for boys and men.

Read the full story

“Be the change”: creating a voice for male sex workers in Malawi

“If I want to see the change, I need to be the change,” said Aniz Mitha, the Executive Director of Community Health Rights Advocacy (CHeRA), an organization that works with male sex workers in Malawi. When Mr Mitha speaks of change, he does so with the quiet and unwavering authority of someone who knows what he is talking about.

From a conservative Muslim family in Malawi, Mr Mitha was thrown out of the house at a young age when his parents found out that he was gay. With nowhere to go and no means to support himself, he fled to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he spent many years as a sex worker. “For me, I was looking to survive; I wasn’t thinking about my health,” he said.

Read full story

A life spent in the AIDS response

Isaac Ahemesah has been involved in the AIDS response for almost 25 years, the last 16 of which were spent working for UNAIDS in various positions across Africa. His most recent assignment has been as a Fast-Track Adviser in the UNAIDS Country Office in Malawi.

Mr Ahemesah’s interest in the AIDS response started in 1995, when he was studying social work at university in Ghana. As part of his studies, he was required to carry out field work at the local hospital, where there was a hospice for the many people dying from AIDS-related illnesses.

“At that time, there was no treatment for HIV. There was nothing for people living with HIV at all,” he says. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” he continues. I just knew I needed to help.”

Read the full story

UNAIDS AND UN WOMEN WORKING TOGETHER IN MALAWI

One of the 11 UNAIDS Cosponsors, UN Women is working closely with UNAIDS to improve the lives of women and girls worldwide. In Malawi, for example, UNAIDS and UN Women have partnered to reduce the impact of gender-based violence and mitigate the risk of HIV infection among women and girls.

With UBRAF funding, UN Women in Malawi has teamed up with an impressive number of partners, including UNAIDS, the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, the National AIDS Commission, the National Law Commission, the United Nations Development Programme, the Malawi Network of AIDS Service Organizations and civil society to implement a project that aims to enhance the national response to sexual and gender-based violence, harmful practices, sexual and reproductive health and rights and HIV.

Read the full story

Cyclone Idai flood survivors ‘just want to go home’

Bangula settlement in Nsanje District, in the south of Malawi, is an arduous five-kilometre walk from the border with Mozambique.

It is a walk that approximately 2 000 Mozambicans have made since they were displaced a month ago by the floods caused by Cyclone Idai. The settlement is also a temporary home to approximately 3 500 Malawians from surrounding villages who were also displaced.

Read the full story