Mozambique: HIV/AIDS diagnosis campaign launched – Watch

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Mozambique: HIV/AIDS diagnosis campaign launched – Watch

9:25 CAT | 21 Aug 2023

Screen grab: Miramar

Mozambique’s Ministry of Health on Friday launched a mass campaign to diagnose HIV/AIDS with a view to finding out the serological status of the population in order to prevent and treat the disease, and plans to reach almost 700,000 people.

The director of the National Programme for the Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS, Aleny Couto, said at a press conference that the campaign essentially aims to reach 29% of the population of around 2.4 million people (696,000 people) infected with the virus, but who are unaware of their condition.

“Diagnosis is one of the main interventions that the health ministry has in order to understand the serological status” of the Mozambican population, estimated at around 30 million inhabitants, emphasised Couto.

The initiative also aims to provide a more general picture of the contamination rate of the Mozambican population in general, with the aim of ensuring prevention and the provision of health care, she added.

“We want people to know their status in order to prevent the disease,” so that “people who are negative remain negative and those who are positive can start treatment immediately,” stressed the director of the National Programme for Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS.

Aleny Couto pointed out that the lack of knowledge of serological status has a higher incidence among adolescents and young people, which will lead to greater awareness of the testing campaign among these two sections of the population.

She said that testing centres will be set up in all the country’s health units with the aim of making the diagnosis of the disease more widespread.

Around two million adults live with the human immunodeficiency virus in the country, or one in eight.

Watch the Miramar report.