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One in 10 Mozambicans infected by HIV/AIDS: health minister

Xinhua, March 17, 2016 Adjust font size:

One in 10 Mozambicans was infected by HIV/AIDS as the country saw an infection rate of 11.5 percent, Health Minister Nazira Abdula said Wednesday.

Speaking at the opening session of the sixth national meeting on the HIV/AIDS, Abdula said that with this figure, Mozambique is in the tenth position of the countries seriously hit by the pandemic in the globe, adding that over two million people have died of the disease since it was first discovered in the former Portuguese colony in 1996.

The minister pointed out that the south and central regions of the country are the most infected by the virus, and the disease is the main cause of consultations to the country's health unities.

Abdula explained that the government has been making efforts to challenge the pandemic which has been crippling in the country.

"Efforts are being made by the government and partners to assist our compatriots who are suffering from the HIV/AIDS and other disease," she said.

The ministry also admits that the demand for treatment is much higher than the capacity of the health unities, however the efforts to balance this gap are under implementation by government and different partners working in the HIV/AIDS domain.

The ministry said that up to now, 84 percent of the AIDS sufferers are receiving treatment, while Mozambique has to pay more attention to the prevention to avoid the spread of the pandemic, since last year the country missed the target of reduction of new infections which only stands at 12 percent.

On the HIV/AIDS transmission from mother to child, the ministry's document says that the sector has 8.7 percent rate. The aim of the meeting is, among other issues, the evaluation of the acceleration of the fight against the disease. Endit