The battle with Aids, famine

2003-04-03 15:56

Johannesburg - Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe are battling a lethal mix of drought-induced food shortages and a massive Aids pandemic, a United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) report revealed on Thursday.

Releasing the report at a media briefing in Johannesburg, Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy, said about one in four adults in the six countries now live with HIV/Aids.

The report said Zimbabwe lead the statistics in terms of people living with HIV/Aids. Some 33% of the country's population were living with the disease.

Swaziland followed with 33.4%, Lesotho with 31%, Zambia at 21.5%, Malawi with 15% and Mozambique with 13%.

Young women between the ages of 15 and 25 in the six countries had the highest HIV/Aids infection rate, compared to their male counterparts.

"This deadly combination of food shortages and HIV/Aids is having particularly devestating consequences for women and girls," Bellamy said.

"Women have been hit hardest by these epidemics and they, overwhelmingly, are taking on the burden of caring for the young, the old, the sick and the dying."

- SAPA