Mozambique Aids patients abandon treatment

More than 70 HIV/Aids patients out of 775 people receiving antiretrovirals in Mozambique's Niassa province have abandoned their treatment in preference for traditional medicine, Vista News reported today. Arantza Meeca, an information officer with the Doctors without Borders mission based in Niassa's capital Lichinga, said in an interview that the patients had abandoned their medication because of "economic problems" and had resorted to traditional medicines.

The figures were presented in a report presented in Lichinga tomorrow which was part of a study made in 2006. The aim of the study was to evaluate and understand socio-cultural factors linked with the abandoning of ARV treatment by some patients.

"The study revealed that the principal causes that led patients to abandon ARV were linked to economic difficulties, the costs involved in travelling long distances to health centres in urban areas to collect medication.

"To this end most of the patients turn to traditional medicine to treat opportunistic infections," said Meneca.

Recently the government said it would double the number of HIV/Aids patients who receive ARVs. According to the ministry of health, 94 000 people are on antiretroviral treatment throughout the country. - Sapa