| Estimated number of adults and children living with HIV/AIDS, end of 2003 |
| These estimates include all people with HIV infection, whether or not they have developed symptoms of AIDS, alive at the end of 2003: |
| Adults and children |
200,000 |
|
| Adults (15-49) |
180,000 |
Adult rate(%) 4.8% |
| Women (15-49) |
100,000 |
|
| Children (0-15) |
18,000 |
|
| Estimated number of deaths due to AIDS |
| Estimated number of adults and children who died of AIDS during 2003: |
| Deaths in 2003 |
18,000 |
|
| Estimated number of orphans |
| Estimated number of children who have lost their mother or father or both parents to AIDS and who were alive and under age 17 at the end of 2003: |
| AIDS orphans 2003 |
96,000 |
|
Assessment of the epidemiological situation **
The Chad/ Cameroon oil pipeline project is the first to incorporate HIV and AIDS awareness programmes into the development programme. The pipeline project, begun in 1998, has the backing of the World Bank. In a pioneering move, The Bank is overseeing the multi-million dollar deal to ensure that the Chadian government spends earnings from the project accountably.
The awareness programme was considered especially important as the oil pipeline was built through region known to have a high HIV prevalence. Prostitutes and truck drivers in the region in eastern Chad, close the border with Central African Republic, had infection rates of 25 to 50 percent.
Low education levels among Chadian women are also considered a problem in tackling the spread of HIV in Chad. According to the World Bank, three quarters of Chadian women aged 15-49 have no education at all and contraception is virtually unheard of.
According to UNAIDS, infection rates are unevenly distributed across the country, with the highest rates of infection in the more densely populated south of the country. UNAIDS also warn that infection rates are expected to increase rapidly, not least because of large refugee populations entering the country from the neighbouring Darfur region of Sudan.
Background to monitoring of HIV
In 2002, sentinel surveillance among women attending antenatal care clinics was conducted in 11 sites of which seven were located in urban areas. Although HIV sentinel surveillance among women attending antenatal care clinics was established in 1992, no sentinel surveys were conducted 1993 and 1994, or from 1996 to 1998, making it difficult to assess trends over time.
In 2002, HIV prevalence among women attending antenatal care clinics ranged from 1.2 percent in Mongo, south-central Chad, to 11.9 percent in Moundou in the far south of the country, close to the border with Central African Republic and Cameroon.
HIV prevalence among women attending antenatal care clinics in the capital N'djamena has been increasing from 2.1 percent in 1995, 4.0 percent in 2000, 5.9 percent in 2001 and 7.5 in 2002.
In Sahr, a border town with the Central African Republic, HIV prevalence rose from 4.1 percent in 1992 to 5.3 percent in 1999, 9.0 percent in 2000 and 8.3 percent in 2002.
In Abeche, eastern Chad close to the border with Sudan, the HIV prevalence rate increased from 0.3 percent in 1992, to 5.2 percent in 1999 and 3.4 percent in 2002. However, this could be expected to rise more significantly following the arrival of hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees in the area.
** Information taken from UNAIDS/WHO epidemiological fact sheets on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2004 Update, The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria and various UN databases.
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