Mozambique reports surge in children put on ARVs

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Mozambique reports surge in children put on ARVs

1:50 CAT | 31 May 2018

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Mozambique’s Health Minister Nazira Abdula has said the number of children who received antiretroviral treatment (ART) in the country increased to 86,255 last year from 76,000 the previous year.

The official made the announcement on Wednesday in Maputo during the opening of the XLIII National Health Coordinating Council, which ends on Friday.

“Disease prevention is the key to success. It is the key to decongesting our hospitals, ensuring the quality of care and responding to the demand imposed on the sector, with a focus on HIV, tuberculosis and malaria prevention,” she said.

The minister also said that the coverage of ART in patients with tuberculosis increased to 95 percent in 2017.

“The TB reporting rate, however, per 100,000 population has increased from to 319 per 100,000 new cases in 2017 from 278 in 2016”, said Abdula.

According to the United nations AIDS, UNAIDS estimates, Mozambique is a country particularly hard-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the southeast African nation possesses the eighth highest HIV prevalence in the world 1,600,000 of of the population) living with HIV, 990,000 of which are women and children,

Abdulla said although HIV/AIDS spans across all demographic categories, and personal risk perception is generally underestimated amongst all Mozambican individuals, women and children are the groups most at risk for infection.

Source: APA