The incidence of HIV/Aids infection among adults in Zimbabwe has dropped by nearly 10% in three years, according to figures released on Thursday by the government of President Robert Mugabe.
The government tally put the percentage of Zimbabwean adults infected with the HIV virus or Aids at 24,9%, down from 33,7% recorded in 2000 by the United Nations agency UNaids.
The total number of Zimbabweans with Aids is estimated to be 1,8-million out of a population of nearly 12 million. About 171 000 Zimbabweans are expected to die of Aids-related causes this year.
Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the new figures ”indicate a lower estimate of national HIV prevalence.”
He said HIV prevalence in antenatal clinic surveys peaked at 34% in 2000, decreased to 30% in 2001 and further dropped to 25,7% in 2002.
The data ”seem to indicate a decline in HIV prevalence” and ”give me a lot of hope”.
The minister added: ”The target is to reduce the HIV prevalence to a single digit.”
UNaids had estimated that about 2,3-million Zimbabweans would be infected by HIV and Aids by this year.
Owen Mugurungi, the Aids and tuberculosis coordinator in the health ministry, said UNaids figures and those generated locally differed because the latter used ”updated and more accurate” data.
The figures unveiled on Thursday were generated using the same software used by UNaids.
New HIV infections are expected to hit 166 000 this year alone. There are an estimated 761 000 Aids orphans in the Southern African country.
Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by HIV and Aids in the world, with an average of more than 3 000 Aids deaths each week.
Morgues are failing to cope with the numbers, amid reports of government mortuaries turning away bodies as they are exceeding their intake capacity by more than threefold.
The estimates were produced with the help of technical expertise from the United States-based Centers for Disease Control, the UN World Health Organisation, UNaids, the Imperial College of London and the local university and statistics office. — Sapa-AFP