Fall in HIV/AIDS rates reported

Ugandan health officials said on Thursday that the HIV/AIDS infection rate among pregnant women had fallen significantly over the last two years, the government-owned ‘New Vision’ reported. A surveillance report from the Ministry of Health showed that the infection rate among women attending ante-natal clinics had fallen to 6.1 percent at the end of 2000, down from 6.8 percent in 1999, it said. The newspaper quoted Director-General of the Uganda AIDS Commission David Kihumuro-Apuuli as saying that the decline in infection rates in pregnant women reflected a general trend of decreased HIV/AIDS infection across the country. According to the report, the fall was much steeper in urban areas, where the average infection rate dropped from 10.9 percent to 8.7 percent. Rural areas only benefited from a 0.1 percent decrease, with the infection rate at the end of 200 standing at 4.2 percent, the ‘New Vision’ reported. The highest infection rate ever reported was 30.2 percent in Mbarara in 1992, where the rate had now dropped to 10.0 percent, it added.