AIDS figures revised

Zimbabwe has revised its HIV/AIDS figures downwards from an estimated 2.3 million to 1.82 million, reducing prevalence from 33.7 percent to 24.9 percent.

But contrary to some reports which have claimed that the number of people with HIV/AIDS has declined, the government says the main reasons for the difference between the government and the United Nations AIDS estimates is due to updated and more accurate ante-natal care data and the stratification of areas as urban and rural as well as the updated United Nations population figures which reflect a population decline.

The government census showed that Zimbabwe had a population of just over 11 million compared with estimates of about 14 million. The new figures show that 1.52 million adults are infected down from 2 million. Of these 860 000 are women, down from 1.2 million while the number of children infected dropped from 240 000 to 160 000.

Prior to the revised figures, Zimbabwe had the second highest HIV/AIDS prevalence in the world after Botswana.

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