Mozambique admits 2030 Aids eradication target is at risk

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Mozambique admits 2030 Aids eradication target is at risk

11:33 CAT | 10 Feb 2016

Lusa (File)

Sources from the National Council for Combating AIDS in Mozambique say the country will not achieve its 2030 AIDS eradication goal due to lack of financing.

“The eradication of the disease by 2030 will be compromised due to lack of funding,” deputy secretary Diogo Milagre warned, speaking to the press on the sidelines of the ‘Pacto’ program closing ceremony.

Pacto is a youth training program for helping people affected by the disease in the community sponsored by the US international development agency USAID.

With official statistics indicating that of the 1.6 million people with AIDS in Mozambique only 640,000 are seeking treatment and more than one-third drop out in the first year, Diogo Milagre stressed that only a stronger mobilization strategy and more investment in awareness can keep patients on treatment regimes.

“Without this funding, we will get fewer people on treatment,” Milagre said, pointing out the United States is Mozambique’s largest partner in the fight against AIDS and calling for more foreign entities to become involved.

The great challenge for Mozambique continued Diogo Milagre, is the continuation and completion of medication regimes by patients particularly in more remote areas where the health service is still lacking.

“The challenges that we currently face are huge,” Milagre said, emphasising that “the most important thing is to ensure that people comply with their medication regimes.”

Director of USAID in Mozambique, Alexander Dickie, pointed up the dissemination of information on prevention and care as the basis for effective strategies to combat the disease in Mozambique.

“Information is important in this fight. It can change the behaviour of individuals,” Dickie says.

Besides USAID, Pacto is supported by the Ministry of Health of Mozambique. In five years, it has trained 2,200 activists and assisted more than 262,000 people with sexual health and gender issues and HIV treatment in communities across the country.

Source: Lusa