Although the virus prevalence rate in Mozambique is, in relative terms, at what may still be consider ed moderate levels for sub-Saharan Africa, the specific circumstances of the country ensure that the HIV/AIDS epidemic should be seen as a tragedy with damaging consequences for development.

As mentioned earlier, about 60.5% of the Mozambican population are illiterate. The country has just 13,156 economically active individuals with higher education courses, of whom only 17% are women. These data reflect the level of vulnerability to the devastating effects of the epidemic in a country with limited resources.⁶

The epidemic strikes two blows at the fragile base of education cadres - first through the disappearance of trained and experienced people, and second though the waste of resources spent on their training. This concerns, and with good reason, society at the highest level, because the victims of AIDS include specialists trained with great sacrifice over the 25 years of independence. ,⁷

In attacking those aged between 15 and 49, the epidemic seriously compromises development efforts, because it concentrates on a significant layer of present and future producers, in a country where this stratum is that of economically active individuals and is estimated at only 37% of the population. In other words, one in six Mozambicans regarded as fit for work is infected by the HIV virus. The epidemic will force the healthy to bear, directly or indirectly, greater responsibilities and costs.