HIV Infection Rate in Mozambique Rises to 16.2 Percent: Health Minister

Mozambican Health Minister Ivo Garrido, briefing Parliament on Wednesday, said 16.2 percent of Mozambicans ages 15-49 have HIV. In 2004, an estimated 1.4 million people in the country had the virus: 80,000 children, 570,000 adult men and 800,000 adult women. Of the roughly 109,000 new infections in 2004, 34,000 were among girls under age 20. Mozambique had 97,000 AIDS deaths in 2004, including 20,000 children under age five. Children under age 17 who have lost one or both parents to AIDS number 270,000. The figures are from a 2004 epidemiological surveillance round that used 36 sentinel sites covering both urban and rural areas in all the country's 11 provinces. Garrido called on people to practice safe sex, noting that 95 percent of cases were contracted sexually.

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