AIM (Mozambico) – Africans Urged to Share Experiences in the Treatment of HIV/Aids
Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
African countries must bear in mind that saving lives should be their primary goal when sharing experiences on dissemination of information against prevention and mitigation of HIV/AIDS and administration of antiretroviral medicines.
This were the words of the chairperson of the Mozambique’s National Aids Council (CNCS), Joana Mangueira, speaking in Maputo on Thursday during the opening ceremony of the XI DREAM Pan-African formation course on AIDS, organized by the Sant’Egidio Community.
While DREAM’s activities take into account the specific and economic conditions of the countries where it has operations, it also uses the same diagnostic tools and procedures used in developing countries.
One of the innovations of the current Antiretroviral (ARV) therapy that will be discussed in the course includes frequent home visits to improve human and psychological support. This also includes nutritional counseling for HIV positive expectant mothers, by advising on correct preparation of artificial milk, better hygiene and sanitation practices.
Speaking during the meeting, Gianni Guidotti, DREAM Project coordinator, praised the commitment of the Sant’Egidio Community for its engagement with the Health Ministry and other religious confessions in the fight against AIDS and malnutrition not only in Mozambique but also in other African countries.
This partnership, said Guidotti, paved the way for the establishment of ARV treatment centers in Machava, Matola 2, Benfica, Polana Caniço, Mahotas in Maputo, Chokwe (Gaza), Quelimane (Zambezia), Manga, Chingoussura and Mangunde (Sofala), including three laboratories of molecular biology for diagnostic purposes in the Maputo, Beira e Nampula provinces.
This support also helped to train over 2,500 health professionals and establishment of health centres for the treatment of pathologies associated with HIV/AIDS.
In the sub-Saharan Africa, DREAM is currently operating in 12 countries, with 21 clinics, 12 laboratories and over 32,000 patients benefiting from the ARV therapy.
Guidotte describes AIDS as a "paradigm of inequalities that is a burden on the people of the Sub-Saharan Africa region, a disease that the West has already found weapons to deal with, but that in Africa continues to kill and spreading because of the lack of medicines, qualified staff to use the available medicines and adequate structures for the implementation treatment programs".
Faced with this sad reality, the challenge is to bring together prevention new HIV infections and therapy, based on the conviction that "besides prevention, it is necessary to save human lives by expanding the life expectancy of wider number of AIDS sufferers", said Guidotti.
Therefore special care given to the prevention vertical transmission (mother to child) that can be achieved by the administration of a "tri-therapy" to save both the lives of the expectant mother and the babies.
DREAM’s statistics for Mozambique show that 98 per cent of the newborn babies from HIV positive mothers are free from the virus thanks to the administration of tri-antiretroviral therapy.
Currently there are 3,600 HIV expectant mothers under the program for the prevention of vertical transmission. This adds to 2,500 babies born from HIV positive mothers under a program for the prevention of vertical transmission, with 2,000 others HIV positive on antiretroviral treatment, of who 80 percent are orphans from HIV positive parents.
The participants of the current course include 200 African health professionals., among medical doctors, nurses, biologists, activists from a number of African countries such a