Maputo — Three people committed suicide by drowning themselves in the Limpopo river, in the southern Mozambican province of Gaza, allegedly because they learnt of their HIV- positive status.

The bodies of the three were recently recovered, in an advanced state of decomposition, after two weeks of intensive searching along the river, conducted both by relatives and the police, using four boats.

Speaking to Radio Mozambique, one of the relatives said that her brother-in-law had warned them that he wanted to die, after learning of his HIV status at the hospital, where he had been receiving treatment for four days.

"I told him: don't do that. He could go to hospital and we would help him in whatever he needed", said Celia Eugenio.

Psychologist Rogerio Moreira, who is working in Gaza, pointed out that lack of good counselling may have been the reason for the three to take such a decision.

"The psychological component is very important in counselling people infected with HIV. Follow up is necessary in order to help the patient to face the AIDS problem normally", he said.

"Unfortunately we have only one psychologist for the entire province, which has the highest HIV prevalence rate in the country, and which receives many people returning from South Africa already infected with the AIDS virus", added Moreira.

The latest epidemiological surveillance round, conducted last year, showed that 27 per cent of people aged between 15 and 49 in Gaza are infected with HIV, compared with only 19.9 per cent in 2004.

The national prevalence rate has stabilized at around 16 per cent among sexually active people.