Extending AIDS treatment raises concerns

The Mozambican Ministry of Health is hoping to have some 8,000 HIV-positive people on anti-AIDS treatment by the end of 2004. An estimated 3,300 people are currently on treatment, but deputy national director of health, Avertino Barreto, noted that treatment could not be started without a guarantee of continuity from patients. He said the ministry planned to increase the number of patients annually but was concerned about sustainability, as attempts at mass treatment without guarantees of sustainability in other African countries had proved "disastrous". Barreto told a local news agency, AIM, that anti-AIDS treatment must be expanded, "but if we don't have the means to sustain it, we shall have serious problems in the future".