HIV/AIDS rates "overestimated" - survey

KENYA: HIV/AIDS rates "overestimated" - survey

JOHANNESBURG, 12 Jan 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Preliminary findings from the latest Kenya Demographic and Health Survey suggest that Africa's HIV/AIDS epidemic may have been "grossly overestimated".

As a result, countries like Cameroon and Tanzania, with respective HIV prevalence rates of 12 and 8 percent, are now planning to conduct population-based surveys to determine their "true" HIV prevalence.

The research, which is conducted every five years, found that 6.7 percent of Kenyans were HIV-positive compared to the ministry of health's 2003 estimate of 9.4 percent.

According to British newspaper the Daily Telegraph, the findings could lead the UN and other groups to "rethink the way it measures HIV/AIDS in Africa".

[ENDS]

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