The objectives for the control of HIV/AIDS in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-15) underline the efforts the country will have to make in the coming years.

Published on Wednesday, the action plan requires that the total number of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus be controlled to within 1.2 million, the number of newly infected people be reduced by 25 percent and the number of deaths by 30 percent.

Controlling the disease is not just a medical issue, it is also a social one. This makes it necessary for the whole of society to be mobilized to prevent the virus from spreading as quickly as it has in the past.