By Charles Mangwiro MAPUTO, Aug 28 (Reuters) - About 100 Mozambique health officials face dismissal for helping gangs siphon drugs from the impoverished African nation's health system for resale on a thriving black market, a government official said on Tuesday. "We have launched a campaign to hunt these unscrupulous officials, to weed out this malpractice as the country faces the risk of being unable to provide adequate healthcare to the people" said Martinho Djedje, a health ministry spokesman. "We can sack them," Djedje said of those being investigated in connection with a criminal ring that has stolen large amounts of drugs, some of which were provided by foreign donors, from airports, dispensaries and other sites. The government has not identified what types of medicines were being pilfered, though it said the stolen drugs often ended up being resold on black markets in neighbouring Zambia and Malawi as well as other parts of Mozambique. The drug thefts have complicated Mozambique's efforts to rebuild a health-care system that was devastated during a 17-year civil war that ended in 1992 and made it more difficult to expand care to poor rural communities. The southern African nation is battling a rising AIDS epidemic, with almost 10 percent of its 18 million people infected with HIV. Only a small number of those infected have access to the antiretrovirals that treat HIV. Mozambique is hoping a plan to build a $10 million pharmaceutical plant will make these drugs and others more available and sharply reduce its dependency on imported pharmaceuticals from India, Brazil and elsewhere.
