HIV Levels In Uganda Come Down

By Charles Wendo and agencies THE number of people living with HIV in Uganda has reduced to 800,000, a report by the United Nations AIDS agency, UNAIDS, has indicated. Until recently, the number of HIV positive people in the country was estimated at 1.5 million. The report released on Thursday, ahead of next week's UN General Assembly special session on AIDS, ranks Uganda 12th in the number of people living with HIV. However, in terms of percentage of the population living with HIV, Uganda does not feature among the top 15. Uganda's infection rate is now estimated at 8.3%. According to the report, countries whose numbers of people living with HIV exceed Uganda's include India, the United States and 12 other African countries. South Africa is ranked first with an estimated 4.7m people living with HIV, followed by India with 3.7 million, Ethiopia with 3.0 million, Nigeria with 2.7 million and Kenya with 2.1 million. Other countries with high numbers of people living with HIV include Zimbabwe with 1.5m, Tanzania 1.3m, Mozambique with 1.2m and the DRC with 1.1m. followed by Zambia with 875,000. Ends