The country is among the first three African nations with the highest rate of prevalence behind South Africa and Nigeria who top the list for the continent, he said on Friday.
Mauricio dos Santos made the announcement during the opening of a training session for inspectors of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security on matters related to stigmatization and discrimination of people living with HIV and AIDS in the workplace.
‘The epidemic is a public health problem that seriously threatens Mozambique’s development. The first AIDS case in the country was diagnosed in 1986. Since then, the number of people living with HIV has been increasing steadily,” he said.
Dos Santos added: “It is estimated that in 2017 a total of 2,123,936 people were living with HIV in the country, of which 168,763 children 0-14 years and 1,955,172 adults over 15 years. In the same period there were 356 new infections per day”.
According to the official, despite the frightening rates of prevalence in the country, it’s important to recognize that efforts are being made to stop or slow the spread of the disease.
‘Efforts are being made to change the situation. It was approved the National Strategic Plan for HIV and AIDS Response (PEN IV 2016-20), which establishes the strategies that will guide actions on a sector level in the fight against HIV and AIDS across the country. This instrument calls for the involvement of both the public and private sectors and civil society,” he added.
For her part the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Victoria Diogo, stressed that preventive measures and education play a major role in the government’s approach to arrest the spread of HIV and AIDS in the workplace.
‘During this five-year period, we delivered out 8,593 lectures covering a total of 247,882 workers, where matters related to prevention and healthy living were addressed,” Diogo explained.
Mozambique, whose health-care system was devastated by a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992, has 16 percent of adults including many health-care workers living with the HIV virus.
The country’s high HIV infection rate has further squeezed its capacity to provide basic medical services, including pre-natal care.