BURUNDI: Government concerned over rural HIV rise

The Burundi government says although the HIV prevalence rate in the urban areas has stabilised at 18.6 percent, it is still concerned by the level of infection in rural areas.

At 1 percent in 1990, HIV prevalence in the rural areas was 7.5 percent by 2000, the minister for HIV/AIDS issues, Genevieve Sindabizera, told IRIN on Monday. She attributed the rise to the high level of promiscuity in camps for the displaced, which host some 432,000 people, and to lack of information on the disease.

The government had, therefore, taken steps to control the epidemic, which in Burundi mostly affects people aged between 15 and 25 years. The government is strengthening its capacity to provide HIV/AIDS information, employing HIV preventive measures and providing drugs, Dr Joseph Wakana, who heads the nation's HIV/AIDS secretariat, told IRIN on Monday.

The economic impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has been dramatic in a country with an annual per capita income of US $140. It costs hospital authorities $832 to treat an AIDS-infected person up to the point of death.

"If AIDS continues at this rate, the projection is that by 2010 life expectancy will drop below 40 years, compared to 60 years if there were no AIDS," Wakana said.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]