African experiences of humanitarian cardiovascular medicine: the Mozambican experience

Independent from Portugal since 1975, Mozambique covers 800,000 km2 and has 2,470 km of coast line. With the Indian Ocean on the East, it shares borders of 4,571 km in total with the following countries: South Africa (491 km) and Swaziland (105 km) in the South; Zimbabwe ( 1,231 km), Zambia (419 km), Malawi (1,569 km) in the West; and Tanzania (756 km) in the North. The estimation of Mozambique population for 2012 is 23.5M inhabitants; the population density was last reported at 29.74 per sq. km. Two thirds of the population is under 25 and around 46% are under 14 years (median age is 16.8 years). The life expectancy is below 50 years old and infant mortality rate is around 130 per 1,000 live births. Total fertility rate is 5.4 children born/woman. The prevalence of children underweight under the age of 5 years was 21.2% in 2003, and that of HIV/AIDS is 11.5% in the adult population (1,2).