Mozambique: Health authorities launch third INSIDA survey

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Mozambique: Health authorities launch third INSIDA survey

7:35 CAT | 03 May 2021

Photo: INS

The Mozambican Ministry of Health launched on Friday the third National Survey on Prevalence, Behavioral Risks and Information about HIV/AIDS (INSIDA), which over the next nine months will seek to portray the current situation of HIV infection, and the impact of the prevention, care and treatment services across the country.

INSIDA will also seek to estimate the incidence and prevalence of HIV and the suppression of viral load among Mozambican people living with the virus.

The nationwide drive, divided into two phases, is budgeted at seven million US dollars disbursed by the government in partnership with the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Also read: Mozambique: 1,000,000 people living with HIV not being treated

The survey will involve 11,000 households and in the first phase, which will run from now until August, it will cover the three southern provinces (Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane) plus Manica and Sofala in the country’s central region. The second phase, which will run from August to November, will cover the rest of the provinces.

The Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, who chaired the launch ceremony in Xai-Xai, the Gaza provincial capital, made an appeal for full-scale participation in every area of each province selected for the drive, because the results will be of great usefulness to the country’s HIV/AIDS policy making.

“The Ministry of Health has decided to take an evidence-based response to disease and INSIDA will provide much needed evidence to draw up the best policies and strategies to fight the disease” Tiago said.

According to recent estimates, there are 2.1 million Mozambican living with the virus and Tiago praised the great strides made by the government in order to reduce its impact. For instance, in 2020, about 38,000 died of the disease across the country.

Tiago said that, although the number is still very high, it is fair to claim that there has been a meaningful decline, when compared with the recent past when the number of annual HIV deaths reached 61,000.

Outlining the fundamental objectives of the survey, Tiago said the health authorities want to assess the overall situation of the HIV/AIDS support and treatment services; ensure accurate information on HIV prevalence across the country and check the practical attitudes and people’s behaviour in regard to HIV/AIDS.

The Deputy Director of the National Health Institute (INS), Eduardo Samo Gudo, declared that among the 11,000 households, only people who are 15 years old and above can participate in the survey, as long as they reside in the randomly selected areas.

He stressed that all data to be collected through the survey is highly confidential and in full compliance with the universal standards of statistics, thus not enabling the establishment of any link with the identity of the respondents.

The Ministry of Health has 50 teams, each consisting of nine members, who have been very well trained to carry out the survey across the country.

The first INSIDA survey was held in 2009, and the second in 2015. This survey should have been held in 2020, but the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic forced a delay.

Source: AIM