[afro-nets] 17 percent of Mozambique's teachers being HIV positive (4)

[Dr Rana Jawad Asghar <jawad@alumni.washington.edu>]

17 percent of Mozambique's teachers being HIV positive (4)
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http://www.chinaview.cn
2004-02-10 02:45:17

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-02/10/content_1306061.htm

MAPUTO, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- About 17 percent of Mozambique's
teachers are HIV positive, considerably higher than the national
average of 13 percent HIV prevalence among people aged between
15 and 49, declared Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in
Maputo on Monday .

Speaking at the opening of a seminar on education and AIDS in
Maputo, Mocumbi said that this will lead to the death of 1.6
percent per year of the country's teachers.

He said AIDS will impose profound changes on the country's edu-
cation system, since sickness and death will cut a swathe
through teachers and managers, who cost a great deal to train.

Schools, Mocumbi added, must also prepare to cope with large
numbers of children who have lost one or both their parents to
AIDS, as well as children who are infected with the virus, and
whoneed special care against the opportunist diseases associated
withHIV.

In order to reduce the impact of AIDS, and protect the education
system from the epidemic, it was crucial to educate young people
about how the disease can be avoided, the prime minister
stressed.

"Education for prevention should bring as its result the adop-
tion of responsible behavior and attitudes toward sexuality, and
which will help halt the contamination of Mozambican young peo-
ple by the virus," Mocumbi said.

He warned "if we are not capable through education to ensure
that young people know how to avoid the disease, then all other
efforts we make will be meaningless."


--
Dr Rana Jawad Asghar
Program Manager Child Survival, Mozambique
Provincial Coordinator Sofala Province, Mozambique
Health Alliance International, Seattle, WA, USA
http://depts.washington.edu/haiuw/
Coordinator South Asian Public Health Forum
http://www.saphf.org
mailto:jawad@alumni.washington.edu
http://www.DrJawad.com