Mozambique: Health minister calls for collective efforts to meet HIV goals

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Mozambique: Health minister calls for collective efforts to meet HIV goals

8:44 CAT | 09 Jul 2021

File photo: Folha de Maputo

The Mozambican Minister of Health, Armindo Tiago, on Thursday stressed the need for stakeholders at all levels to redouble their efforts and commitment to ensure attainment of the goals enshrined in the HIV/AIDS 5th National Strategic Plan (PEN V), for the 2021/25 period, through improved approaches for response implementation.

Addressing the opening session in Maputo of the Consultative Council of Mozambique’s National AIDS Council (CNCS), Tiago said that, although the results of the country’s main indicators of the national response to HIV/AIDS are encouraging, there must be collective and inclusive efforts against the disease.

“As a contribution to solve the problems faced by the HIV/AIDS response, I urge everyone to give the best of your knowledge and experience to ensure an improvement of our action and thus attain the commitments undertaken in the framework of PEN V,” he said.

In Mozambique, Tiago added, HIV remains a heavy burden on communities, and the country is among the five with the highest number of new infections in the world. It is estimated that about 98,000 new HIV infections were recorded in 2020, and 38,000 deaths related to the disease. By then, about 2.1 million people were living with HIV.

As part of multi-sector efforts, the government has been adopting national strategies which are implemented by the public and private sectors as well as by civil society. The government, he said, approved in May PEN V, which had been drawn up through an inclusive district, provincial and national consultative process involving a wide variety of stakeholders.

Under PEN V, the health authorities are committed to reducing new infections, reducing AIDS- related deaths and improving the well-being of people living with HIV. The plan also hopes to reduce the social and structural barriers to the prevention, treatment and mitigation of HIV.

Source: AIM