MPs among AIDS fatalities - Malawian President

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika has told the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that HIV/AIDS must be treated as a political, social and economic crisis. Addressing the annual SADC summit in Mauritius earlier this week, he said the pandemic was killing off people crucial to the development of the region. "We continue to lose prominent politicians and members of parliament to the HIV/AIDS pandemic," Reuters quoted Mutharika as saying. Research shows there are an estimated 25 million people living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa - almost two-thirds of the global total - while the southern African nations of Botswana and Swaziland have prevalence rates above 35 percent, which are the world's highest.