アンゴラ：1年間でHIV感染者が3000人増加

Angola records 3,000 new HIV/AIDS cases
Sat Sep 17,11:52 AM ET - AFP

Angola, the southern African nation least hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has recorded some 3,000 new infections of the deadly virus so far this year, a top health official has said.

The surge in the number of recorded infections follows the opening of new voluntary testing centers across the former Portuguese colony, the coordinator of the National Aids Combat Program, Dulcelina Serrano, told the Lusa news agency late Friday.

Just under 14,000 Angolans were registered as having HIV -- the virus that causes AIDS -- at the end of 2004 although the actual number of people with the disease is believed to be much higher.

Officials estimate around five percent of Angola's population of 13 million is infected with the virus, well below the level in other countries in the region which have infection rates of between 20 and 30 percent.

Health experts say the infection rate is lower in Angola than in its neighbours because a 27-year civil war, which ended in April 2002, kept foreigners away and limited travel within the oil-and-diamond-rich country.

But with the end of the civil war health officials have warned that the country faces the threat of a massive spread of the disease, especially as refugees return from neighboring states.

To counter this threat the Angolan government increased its funding in 2005 for education and awareness programs to fight the spread of the disease as well as for treatment programs for those alreay infected.