More antiretrovirals for Mozambique

Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 1 841 347 at noon on Wednesday July 12 2006

Last Friday the United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, Stephen Lewis, called for a rapid increase in the provision of anti-retroviral drugs for HIV-positive people in Mozambique to avoid a ‘grave crisis” in the country.

Speaking at the end of a week-long trip to the country, Lewis said the government ‘must move heaven and earth” to reach its target of 55 000 HIV-positive people receiving anti-retrovirals by the end of the year.

Only 25 000 to 28 000 individuals are currently receiving treatment.

Lewis also said it is crucial to ensure that treatment is available nationwide and not just in the capital, Maputo. Lewis also said women in the country are more vulnerable than men to HIV/Aids, and called on the govern-ment to empower women, pass laws against sexual violence and alter men’s views about sexuality to help reduce HIV transmission.

Lewis praised some of the country’s pilot projects to fight HIV/Aids. He urged the Health Ministry to adopt the Dream programme, which has been successful in preventing mother-to-child HIV transmission, nationally. He also called for more health workers to be trained.

Source: Kaisernetwork.org