HIV affecting Mozambique development programmes

Corruption and red tape are main challenges to Mozambique's economic development

The increase in the infection rate of HIV/Aids in Mozambique was negatively affecting the swift implementation of the government's programmes to fight poverty, the country's president said today.

Addressing over 500 youths attending a conference on the disease in Maputo, President Armando Guebuza said the government had to divert resources meant for development projects, to HIV/Aids patients in state hospitals.

Guebuza's call follows recent remarks by Ivo Garrido, the minister of health, who recently said the increase in the number of HIV/Aids patients in state hospitals had resulted in congestion, thereby hindering health workers' swift attendance to patients.

The situation was worse in the state's provincial hospitals in Manica, Sofala, Gaza and Maputo. In Mozambique the official HIV/Aids infection rate among its adult population is pegged at 16.3%. Guebuza urged the youth to change their sexual attitudes as part of the fight against the pandemic. - Sapa