22 August 2007
Maputo — The American government will soon undertake a training program for Mozambican health professionals, to build capacity of the country's health system.
This was disclosed on Wednesday, in Maputo, by the Mozambican Health Minister, Ivo Garrido, at the end of an audience of the visiting U.S.
secretary of health and human services, Michael Leavitt, with the Mozambican president, Armando Guebuza.
During the meeting, Guebuza and Leavitt discussed the current situation of the health sector in Mozambique, and exchanged views on how to strengthen the existing cooperation in health matters between both countries.
Ivo Garrido, who could not disclose further details on the agreement, said that taking into account the shortcomings of Mozambique in all areas of expertise, priority will be given to those health professionals working in the rural areas.
"We believe that we can do a lot more in this area, being the reason our discussions gravitated around issues such as training of human recourses", said the minister.
Garrido also expressed his gratitude with the American support in the health sector that shows a progressive increase over the last few years.
In a recent interview to AIM, Garrido said that currently Mozambique has a total of about 800 doctors, which gives a ratio of one doctor for about 24,000 inhabitants, adding that "this is frankly bad, when we consider that on average the developed countries have one doctor for less than 1,000 inhabitants'.
For his part, Michael Leavitt, said that he was conveying a message from the U.S president, George Bush, to his Mozambican counterpart, adding that Washington is willing to support the country in the fight of endemic diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.
Also, Leavitt pointed out that the discussions held with the Mozambican authorities will enable both countires to work closely together not only to strengthen their cooperation, but also to fight the main killer diseases in Mozambique.
Current estimates show that Mozambique has a prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS of 16.2 per cent, with malaria being the main cause of mortality, responsible for more than 40 per cent outpatient consultations and 30 per cent of deaths of patients admitted in the hospital.
Mocambique is one of the 15 countries targeted by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. In 2006, the Global Fund granted 94.4 million USD to Mozambique to implement a comprehensive program for the prevention and treatment HIV/AIDS in accordance with national strategies.
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