No HIV/AIDS drug roll-out in February

Mozambique's Health Ministry has dismissed reports that the government is about to provide antiretroviral drugs to HIV-positive people in the central city of Beira. The Mozambican news agency AIM reported on Thursday an announcement by Sofala provincial health director, Alberto Baptista, that Beira Central Hospital would be ready to dispense antiretroviral drugs in February. "No funding has been allocated to dispense and monitor HIV/AIDS treatment for the city of Beira," head of the epidemiological department of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Rosa Marlene Lanjate, told the UN news service Plusnews. "The clinic at Beira Central Hospital was launched in September 2002 only for the monitoring and evaluation of PWAs, and not to dispense HIV/AIDS drugs," Lanjate said. The government is still negotiating a US $55 million World Bank grant for a number of HIV/AIDS programmes, including the provision of treatment, Lanjate added.