Maputo — Patients in the central Mozambican city of Beira, who are infected with HIV, the virus that causes the lethal disease AIDS, can be treated with life- prolonging anti-retroviral drugs as from February.

Announcing this on Wednesday, the Sofala provincial health director, Alberto Baptista, said that work on a special clinic for such patients, on the premises of the Beira Central Hospital, was almost concluded. All that remains to be done, he said, is to install equipment for a molecular biology laboratory, which Baptista described as an important component for the proper functioning of the clinic.

"As soon as the laboratory is equipped, the clinic will start working", he said. "So we think that by February, this clinic will be available for those who require it".

Baptista said that similar units will be set up in the Sofala districts of Buzi, Dondo and Nhamatanda, in order to ensure that HIV-positive people in the province do not all come to Beira for treatment.

Sofala is one of the provinces worst-hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The latest Health Ministry statistics suggest that 18.7 per cent of Sofala residents aged between 15 and 49 are infected with HIV, well above the national average of 12.2 per cent.