Life expectancy reduced by AIDS

The average life expectancy of Rwandan citizens may be reduced to under 40 over the next few years due to the AIDS epidemic, says a new report issued by the US Census Bureau on Sunday.

Presenting a "middle-case scenario" report at the International AIDS conference in Barcelona, Spain, the Census Bureau's Karen Stanecki said that assuming the epidemic "levels off" over the next eight years, Rwanda, Angola, Lesotho and Malawi would all see life expectancy drop to the mid-to-late thirties, Reuters reported.

"Unfortunately, many African countries are only beginning to see the impact of high levels of HIV prevalence," Reuters quoted her saying.

A United Nations report on the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, released on 2 July, stated that the epidemic was still "in an early phase". Theories that it might "level off" in heavily affected countries, due to a decline in the pool of people at risk, were being disproved as the epidemic continued to expand, the UN reported.

At the end of 2001, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS estimated that half a million Rwandans, including 65,000 children (14 and under), were living with either HIV or AIDS. Between 29,000 and 44,000 thousand adults (aged between 15 and 49) and between 10,000 and 15,000 children had died of AIDS-related illnesses during the year, the UN reported.

The rate of infection among young women was considerably higher than men, with up to 13.4 percent of females aged between 15 and 24 infected, in contrast with almost 6 percent of males in the same age bracket.

The UN agency estimated that by the end of 2001, 260,000 Rwandan children had been orphaned by AIDS.