¡¡MAPUTO, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- About 17 percent of Mozambique's teachers are HIV positive, considerably higher than the national average of 13 percent HIV prevalence among people aged between 15 and 49, declared Mozambican Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Maputo on Monday .

    Speaking at the opening of a seminar on education and AIDS in Maputo, Mocumbi said that this will lead to the death of 1.6 percent per year of the country's teachers.

    He said AIDS will impose profound changes on the country's education system, since sickness and death will cut a swathe through teachers and managers, who cost a great deal to train.

    Schools, Mocumbi added, must also prepare to cope with large numbers of children who have lost one or both their parents to AIDS, as well as children who are infected with the virus, and whoneed special care against the opportunist diseases associated withHIV.

    In order to reduce the impact of AIDS, and protect the education system from the epidemic, it was crucial to educate young people about how the disease can be avoided, the prime minister stressed.

    "Education for prevention should bring as its result the adoption of responsible behavior and attitudes toward sexuality, and which will help halt the contamination of Mozambican young people by the virus," Mocumbi said.

    He warned "if we are not capable through education to ensure that young people know how to avoid the disease, then all other efforts we make will be meaningless." Enditem