CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: HIV/AIDS study underway at Bangui university

Research is currently in progress to determine the role of HIV/AIDS in the high death rate among lecturers and students at
the University of Bangui, in the Central African Republic, an official told IRIN on Saturday.

"The study will show those who died of HIV/AIDS or other diseases and those who were absent because of other reasons," Frederic Nguile, the director of planning and archives at the university, said.

The study is being undertaken by a group of lecturers. Nguile said it was feared that 50 percent of the deaths were due to HIV/AIDS.

Three lecturers had died during the 2001-2002 academic year, and nine in the previous academic year. He added that hypertension was said to be the second most common cause of death at the university.

The university has a total of 918 teaching staff, including permanent personnel and contractual assistants. There were 5,536 students registered in the 2001-2002 academic year.

Although several deaths had occurred among the students, Nguile said, most of them were not reported to the university administration.

Three percent of the 1,797 students at the college of social sciences and languages in 2001-2002 did not register to continue their studies the following year, as did one percent of the 1,420 students at the college of law and economic sciences.

In an address to the students and lecturers on Saturday during the presentation of new staff members, the new rector of the university, Isaac Benguemalet, urged those gathered to undergo medical tests "as soon as possible" to establish their HIV status.

Nguile announced that the university administration, in consultation with the faculty of medicine, was working on how to help organise for the testing of lecturers and students.

According to a study conducted by the Institut Pasteur in December 2002, 14.8 percent of the country's population is HIV-positive.

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