Maputo — The Mozambican health authorities have reported the detention of six health workers for alleged involvement in the theft of medicines and medical-surgical supplies in the districts of Muembe and Mandimba, in the northern province of Niassa.

Last January, the authorities denounced the theft of anti-malarial drugs worth 42 million meticais (about 657,000 US dollars, at the current exchange rate) from the central medical stores of the National Health Service in Maputo province.

According to Cássimo Abudo, administrator of Muembe district, antimalarial drugs are the most stolen medication in the district. He explained that the detainees in question used to sell the stolen medicines to private pharmacies.

"They were also involved in theft of blood collection bags, which forced the introduction of increased security measures in the district's health facilities", he said.

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Health Minister Ussene Isse has declared "zero tolerance' for the theft of medicines. In January, a pharmacist was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment for the theft of medicines in the central province of Sofala.

Meanwhile, the Association of United Health Professionals (APSUSM) has threatened to step up its strike action, which began on 16 January. The APSUSM chairperson, Anselmo Muchave, cited in Tuesday's issue of the independent daily "O Pais', claimed that the government is not complying with recommendations emerging from the negotiations with the strikers, and that the situation of the National Health Service is "catastrophic'.

Muchave alleged that a "silent genocide' is taking place in the health units. Since the start of the strike there had been 1,872 deaths, he claimed, caused by lack of medicines and medical material and lack of care in the health units.

Muchave has made such claims frequently, but nobody else has seen huge numbers of deaths in the health units.