Fiocruz was one of the stops of the official visit by the delegation sent to Brazil by the Mozambique Ministry of Health, on the first week of September. The group was accompanied by representatives of the Brazilian Ministry of Health, of the United States President's Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) of the United States, in a series of meetings to exchange experiences in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment activities. In addition to Rio de Janeiro, the delegations also visited the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, in Brasília, and the building of the State’s Secretary’s Office for Health of Santa Catarina, in Florianópolis.

In Rio de Janeiro, the visit became an event to pay homage to the players involved in the cooperation agreement between Fiocruz, Fiotec and CDC, whose effort and performance over many years were officially acknowledged. Over more than 20 years, this international partnership resulted in several initiatives and projects to prevent and fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other diseases such as malaria, zika, chikungunya, dengue fever and, more recently, Covid-19.

Marly Cruz, linked to the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health (Ensp/Fiocruz) and main researcher of the Cooperation Agreement, together with Vanda Cota, were honored at the occasion, in addition to Cristiane Sendim, Fiotec’s executive director, and Pedro Burger, health management analyst of Fiocruz’s Center for International Relations in Health (Cris). The plaques that acknowledge their contribution for the success of the Agreement were handed by Langan Denhard, of the HIV/TB Division of CDC USA, by Juan Flores and Tisa Barrios Wilson, on behalf of US State Department of PEPFAR, and Fabio O’Brien, of CDC Brazil.

According to Cristiane Sendim, this acknowledgement can be attributed, in large part, to Fiotec’s recent motion to become even closer to the teams in charge of project A Hora é Agora (The Time is Now), led by researcher Marly Cruz. “In the last few years, we’ve been moving closer to the project’s coordination team, promoting quarterly and semestral weekends with our Projects and Purchasing teams. During these meetings we also discuss problems and identify issues that can be improved in our support, helping the target public of the initiative to be fully benefitted by the actions”, she explained.

In 2023, Fiotec took representatives of its Projects and Logistics teams, the main ones involved in the administrative management of projects, to the event that celebrated the 20 years of the Agreement betwen Ensp, Fiocruz and CDC. The meeting took place at the auditorium of Fiocruz Brasília.