“Mozambique” is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 181 out of 189 countries on the human development index. As part of the CSIA initiative:

As a middle-income institution, the University of Cape Town (UCT) / Groote Schuur Hospital took on “mentorship” for Maputo Central Hospital/Eduardo Mondlane University.

“Resident training” at high-volume Institutions in India and China were pursued to upskill key team members. A Fellowship for a senior resident of the cardiac surgical team of Maputo Central has been arranged at UCT for 2024.

Staff training at tertiary institutions with a significant share of RHD has been a major focus of CSIA’s role in Mozambique.

Starting in June 2023, the teams in Cape Town and Maputo have also instituted monthly video conferences in which challenging surgical “cases are presented” and discussed among the heart teams of both institutions. Telephonic direct lines for in- traoperative advice have equally been established and utilized.

As part of the agreement with the minister of health, CSIA efforts were “matched by the government” by the purchase of a “second heart lung machine, 120 additional oxygenators” and 20 “additional mechanical valve prostheses.” A “state-of-the-art modern cardiac” intensive care unit (ICU) is currently being built. Since then, intrabypass anesthetics could be switched to from iv to isoflurane on the new heart lung machine for the training of which the “perfusionist” team from Mozambique spent time in Cape Town. Further extended training visits of Mozambiquean specialist and support staff at UCT and mentoring visits of Cardiothoracic, Anesthetic, Cardiology and Intensivist teams from UCT have become increasingly frequent.


Overall, CSIA’s involvement in Mozambique has had the effect not only of “qualitatively” strengthening the CS services of the program, but also “quantitatively” as the Government committed itself to almost “doubling the annual case volume” over the next 2 years. Post- COVID case numbers slowly recovered from 10 in 2021 to 35 in 2022 to 43 in 2023 (including double and triple-valve surgeries) restricted by 1 ICU bed per week. Two ICU beds/week plus the intense staff and support-staff training of the past 18 months promise a noticeable increase of open-heart cases over the next 2 years.