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The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday dismissed reports that a free supply of antiretrovirals would be made available to pregnant HIV-positive women in Mozambique soon.
"The free supply will only become available once the government has submitted its application to the German pharmaceutical company [Boehringer-Ingelheim ]," UNICEF communication officer Michael Klaus told the UN news service Plusnews.
In 2000 German multinational, Boehringer-Ingelheim, made the offer of a free five-year supply of nevirapine to developing countries for use in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS.
Klaus said UNICEF and the government are still in the process of preparing the documentation that will allow the country its share of the offer.
The Mozambique news agency AIM on Friday reported the programme will start in hospitals in the central cities of Beira and Chimoio this year and will then expand to a hospital in Gaza province.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions