Khartoum and Juba have announced plans to work together to help control the spread of HIV/AIDS across their border.
The countries have agreed to form a joint medical team that will voluntarily test people who are attempting to escape the fighting in South Sudan by crossing into Sudan.
The director-general of Sudan’s National Programme for AIDS, Dr. Mohamed Osman Hamid, said they also intend to create six regular checkpoints along the border for administering voluntary HIV tests.
He said one of those centers is already in place at the Joda crossing in White Nile State.
The agreements came after a meeting between Hamid and his South Sudanese counterpart, who praised the efforts to form an HIV-specific response to the current crisis.
She said within South Sudan, more efforts need to be made to promote HIV awareness in areas that have been hit by the fighting, including Bentiu, Bor and Malakal.
According to 2012 data on the website of UN Aids Programme, there are approximately 150,000 people living with the virus HIV in South Sudan. The prevalence rate for adults aged 15 to 49 is 2.7%.
File photo: A girl named Helen suffering from HIV/AIDS addresses a crowd in Western Bahr el Ghazal at Wau Stadium, on the occasion of World AIDS Day, 1 December 2012. (Radio Tamazuj)