MAPUTO, Dec 26 (AFP) - Mozambican hospitals including the main health facility in the capital Maputo are desperately short of blood, especially for malaria patients, the head of the country's Roll Back Malaria Group said Friday.
Anglican Bishop Dinis Sengulane told AFP that several hospitals that he visited recently "are facing a serious shortage of blood for patients, particularly those suffering from malaria."
Malaria is Mozambique's biggest killer, ahead of the HIV/AIDS pandemic which is ravaging Africa.
Sengulane said hospitals were beginning to receive large numbers of people suffering from the mosquito-transmitted disease. The situation could worsen in the upcoming rainy season.
"The situation of malaria is very bad in the hospitals that I've just visited," Sengulane said.
"We appeal on everyone to donate blood at this time of need as their Christmas present and contribution to struggle against the disease, which the main cause of death in Mozambique," he said.
Sengulane, who was also a key figure in peace negotiations between the government of President Joaquim Chissano and rebels leading to a peace accord in 1992, also called for more attention and resources to be put in the eradication of malaria.
"Fighting HIV/AIDS does not mean you abandon the fight against malaria, which after all continues to be the number one cause of death in Africa," he said.
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