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2.6 million HIV infected

    ABIDJAN

    Statistics released for Nigeria show that 2.6 million people are infected and this will have reached 4.9 million by 2003, in a country where the infection rate exceeds 20 percent in some areas. This rate doubles that of neighbours Benin, Chad and Niger.

    These findings, in the most comprehensive survey of the spread of HIV in the country (Africa's most populous), concludes the growing HIV epidemic will have major social and economic repercussions on Nigeria.

    A report accompanying the findings says that an estimated 5.4 percent of adult Nigerians now carry the virus.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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