Mozambique Steps Up Provision Of Aids Drugs

Maputo - More than 15 000 Mozambicans are currently receiving anti-Aids drugs, the government said on Friday, citing the rapid increase in the provision of treatment as a success for the impoverished southern African nation where more than 16 percent of adults carry the virus.
President Armando Guebuza said more united efforts to prevent and treat AIDS were necessary throughout Africa, the continent hardest hit by the pandemic.
Addressing a conference aimed at training health professionals to administer antiretroviral therapy, Guebuza said the treatment had revived hope among people who previously believed they were under a death sentence.
"One of the decisive challenges in this struggle is training because the lack of qualified human resources is sometimes an insuperable obstacle", said Guebuza.
In addition to Mozambicans, medical staff from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea-Conakry, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are attending the course, sponsored by the Italian non-governmental organization, the Sant'Egido Community.
The charity is providing antiretroviral drugs to 4 000 Mozambicans - out of a nationwide total of 15 000 receiving the therapy.
Health Minister Ivo Garrido told state radio on Friday that the number being treated had more than doubled from 7 000 last December.
"There are few African countries that have had such a rapid expansion of antiretroviral treatment", Garrido said.
He told parliament earlier this week that 16.2 percent of adults aged between 15 and 49 are infected with the HIV virus that causes Aids. In the worst hit province, Sofala, the rate is 26,5 percent.
In 2004, an estimated 1,4 million of Mozambique's 18 million population were HIV positive, according to Garrido. Of that number, 80 000 were children, 570 000 were men and 800 000 were women.
He said there were an estimated 109 000 new HIV infections last year, of which 34 000 were in girls under the age of 20. About 97 000 people died of the virus last year, including 20 000 children under the age of five.
There are now 270 000 Mozambicans under the age of 17 who have lost one or both parents to Aids.
The government says life expectancy will continue to decline if current trends continue, imposing a huge burden on a country still struggling with the legacy of colonialism and a long civil war.
Trained staff are likely to die faster than they can be trained, with Mozambique expected to lose 9 200 teachers and 6 000 health professionals to Aids by 2010.
The government has stepped up prevention efforts, distributing 25 million free condoms last year, and it has expanded counseling and voluntary testing clinics throughout the country.
from IOL