AIDS drug rollout hampered by staff shortage

Serious staff and equipment shortages are preventing Mozambique from launching a national anti-AIDS drug programme. Health Minister Francisco Songane said many of the estimated 120,000 HIV-positive people who were "urgently" in need of antiretroviral treatment did not have access to the drugs. Approximately 1.5 million of the country's 18 million population are living with HIV/AIDS. Songane was quoted by Reuters as saying: "It is simply impossible to imagine that we can distribute [antiretrovirals] countrywide; we do not have the capacity to do that; we do not have the trained manpower or the infrastructure to handle such a massive programme."