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Zimbabwe says HIV rate declines to 18.1 percent
Reuters
September 07, 2006

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07836024.htm

HARARE - The number of of people infected with the virus that causes AIDS is down in Zimbabwe due to increased awareness but the country still has one of the highest HIV rates in the world, state media reported on Thursday.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa was quoted by the Herald newspaper as saying the government's latest Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey showed that the country's HIV prevalence rate had declined to 18.1 percent from 20.1 percent from 2004.

The newspaper said the survey showed a rise in condom use, a delay by young girls in starting sex and an awareness rate of HIV/AIDS of up to 99.2 percent.

"Doctor Parirenyatwa said that while the prevalence rate was still high, the government was especially happy that the country seemed to be in the right direction in responding to the HIV/AIDS crisis," it said.

The survey was not immediately available on Thursday and Parirenyatwa and other senior officials could not be reached for comment.

The embattled southern African country lies close to the heart of Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic, which local health experts say kills an average of 3,000 Zimbabweans every week.

The World Health Organisation said last year that Zimbabwe's adult HIV prevalence had fallen to around 20 percent in 2004 from 25 percent in 1999 due to increased condom use and people having fewer sexual partners.

Critics say Zimbabwe's drive against the AIDS pandemic would have been greater but for a severe economic crisis many blame on government policies and mismanagement.

The health sector is among those hardest hit by the crisis, which has brought shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency along with water and power cuts, and an inflation rate of almost 1,000 percent.

Mugabe, 82, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, rejects charges he has misruled Zimbabwe, and blames the economic crisis on sabotage by his political foes and Western sanctions imposed over allegations of political repression.

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