On Friday, the Mozambican government, through the Ministry of Health (MISAU), launched a campaign to increase the number of people diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, with the aim of gaining knowledge of the population's serological status in order to prevent and treat the disease..

This is an initiative whose goal is to reach almost 700,000 people.

For the director of the National Program for the Control of Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS, Aleny Couto, the campaign essentially aims to reach 29% of the universe of around 2.4 million people (696,000 people) infected by the virus, but who are unaware of their condition.

At a press conference, Aleny Couto emphasized that "diagnosis is one of the main interventions that the Ministry of Health has in order to know the serological status of the Mozambican population".

"The action also aims to have a more general picture of the contamination rate of the Mozambican population in general, with the aim of ensuring prevention and the provision of health care," he added, stressing that "we want people to know their status in order to prevent the disease, so that those with a negative situation remain negative and those who are positive can start treatment immediately."

The director of the National Program for Sexually Transmitted Infections and HIV/AIDS pointed out that ignorance of HIV status is more prevalent among adolescents and young people, which will lead to greater awareness of the testing campaign among these two sections of the population.

To this end, the source said that testing devices will be set up in all the country's health units with a view to mass diagnosis of the disease.

Around two million adults live with the human immunodeficiency virus in the country, or one in eight.