MOZAMBIQUE TO EXPAND ARV TREATMENT PROGRAM

The Mozambique Ministry of Health hopes to expand its antiretroviral (ARV) treatment program for those infected with HIV/AIDS, aiming to provide 50,000 people with ARVs by the end of 2006. Currently, 19,700 Mozambicans are receiving ARV treatment - only a fraction of the more than 1 million adults in the country living with the disease.

At a recent governmental meeting in the Mozambican capital of Maputo, Health Minister Ivo Garrido stated that a key problem involved in providing increased ARV treatment would be decentralizing health services. He noted that in the near future, the government's National Health Service would seek to appoint a healthcare professional to oversee HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs in each of the country's 11 provinces. He added, however, that there was an inherent risk in such decentralization, cautioning healthcare providers against lessening the quality of service amidst expansion.

Specific expansion guidelines will be issued by the Ministry of Health in the coming months.