Panafrican News Agency - December 2, 2001
In an address Saturday in the central province of Zambezia, during observance of the International Day of Struggle Against AIDS, Chissano broke one of the major taboos of all by publicly speaking of the need to campaign for increased use of condoms.
"I think that everywhere, in schools, in churches, in the home, campaigns for the use of condoms should be spoken about," he said.
The purpose of this was not to corrupt young people, but "quite the contrary. It is to ensure that young people have more responsibility," the official news agency, AIM, quoted Chissano as saying.
"I am not opposed to campaigns for condoms. I am in favour of the condom in a moral fashion, to be used as a shield," he noted.
Deputy Health Minister Aida Libombo told the rally that the silence surrounding AIDS must be broken, and an end put to any discrimination against people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
"We must accept and recognise that AIDS exists", she said.
"It is a reality and it is amongst us. We must know and accept that in Mozambique the main form of transmission is sexual. We must accept that the most effective way of preventing infection is to be faithful to our partners -- and if we are incapable of being faithful, then at least we should use condoms in casual sexual encounters".
Libombo added that it is currently estimated that "every day there are 500 new infections with HIV in Mozambique".
"In our hospitals, about 50 percent of all beds are occupied by people who are HIV-positive," she revealed.
The latest figures from the Health Ministry and the National Statistics Institute suggests that 12.2 percent of all Mozambicans aged 15-49 years are infected with HIV.
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