COTE D IVOIRE: West struggles against rebels and AIDS

JOHANNESBURG, 6 Oct 2004 (PLUSNEWS) - Cote d'Ivoire's rebel-held western town of Man is bracing itself for an invasion of a different nature - HIV and AIDS.

Current research on how many people are HIV-positive is vague, but experts are concerned that prevalence rates could be alarmingly high.

Although foreign NGOs provide basic healthcare that does not include HIV testing, one of the indicators of the HIV/AIDS rate is the number of pregnancies resulting from unprotected sex.

"There has been an explosion of pregnancies among girls aged between 12 and 19 years old ... at high schools there would be two or three girls pregnant at any given time. Now, in one town, we found a school with nearly eighty pregnant girls," said Yssouf Ouattara of CARE, an international NGO that recently launched an AIDS prevention project in Man.

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