/ 20 April 1999

WHO CHIEF IN MAPUTO

THE director general of the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), Gro Harlem Brundtland, arrived in Maputo on Monday for a two-day working visit to Mozambique. Official sources said Brundtland had come to the southern African nation to evaluate the implementation of various health programmes backed by her organisation. During her stay, she will visit a number of health centres in southern Mozambique, including the Boane district health unit where a trial project on the use of mosquito nets is taking place. Malaria is currently the country’s top public health problem with hundreds of cases reported daily. Brundtland is also scheduled to meet with President Joaquim Chissano, Foreign and Cooperation Minister Leonardo Simao and Health Minister Aurelio Zilhao. She is scheduled leave Mozambique on Wednesday for similar visits to Zimbabwe and Ivory Coast.