GABORONE, Oct 15 (AFP) - More than one in four adults in Botswana is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, official figures show, statistically making it one of the world's worst affected countries.

The government, despite an extensive awareness campaign, has been unable to stem the rate of infection in the southern African country.

"For those in the sexually active 15-49 age group the figure is 29 percent infected" -- almost one in three, according to Christine Stegling, assistant health officer in the government's STD/AIDS unit.

The figure for the general population -- all ages -- is 17 percent.

"By June last year we estimated that 260,000 had been infected. For the year 2000 we are predicting that 332,000 will be infected," Stegling told AFP.

Botswana's diamond-rich government has provided 30 million pula (around 6 million dollars) for a community network to provide home-based care for AIDS patients and ease the pressure on hospitals.

Seventy percent of the beds in each of the country's two biggest hospitals -- Gaborone's Princess Marina and Francistown's Nyangabwe hospitals -- are occupied by AIDS patients.

Billboards, posters and car-bumper stickers in cities and villages throughout the largely desertified country warn of the dangers of unprotected sex, with messages like "Don't let casual sex kill Botswana's future" and "be wise, condomise".

Government ministers end every Khotla (tribe) meeting with an anti-AIDS message. President Mogae mentions it in every speech.

Reigning Miss Universe Mpule Kwelagobe has used her title to campaign against AIDS at home and worldwide.

"I believe a lot of other countries are still in denial about it. I don't think Botswana's statistics are the worst. Its just that we've been more open about it in this country," Kwelagobe told AFP.

She has been busy "spreading the message of hope" at home and abroad since being crowned last May. "In one way it touches everybody, everyone is affected, whether you are infected or affected."

But words alone have failed to stem the tide.

"In terms of awareness the government has done everything it can. The problem is to change behaviour," says Botsalo Ntuane, executive secretary of the ruling Botswana Democratic Party and its campaign manager in this week's elections, which has seen the government come under fire for not doing enough about AIDS.

"About three years ago nobody knew of anyone dying of AIDS. Now that people are starting to drop dead, the realisation is dawning. Now we have to change our behaviour," Ntuane told AFP.

"Some young people don't do anything else on a Saturday but go to funerals. Some go to two funerals of friends who were AIDS victims," Stegling says.

According to Stegling, the message is available at every turn, but is not effecting discernable behavioural change.

"We have a real behavioural problem, we are not dealing with an uneducated population here."

Even in the remote villages, where the old people refer to the virus as the "radio disease" -- because of the AIDS awareness adverts on the radio, still the main source of information in rural Botswana -- "people know what's going on", Stegling says.

The long term effects will be harrowing for Botswana 1.5 million people, despite the wealth created by the country's diamond industry, which produced a third of all the diamonds mined in the world last year.

A ministry of health study forecasts that the number of AIDS orphans under the age of 15 would reach 65,000 by next year.

Economist Keith Jefferis of the independent Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) says the AIDS statistics means slower growth for the economy over the next 25 years.

"AIDS will reduce economic growth by an average 1.0 percent a year," Jefferis forecasts. "AIDS will have a similar effect on population growth, which is currently over 2.0 percent a year. It would also fall by 1.0 percent on average"

However, economists say that AIDS will also reduce Botswana's 20 percent unemployment because of the fall in population growth.

Diamond giant Debswana's boss Louis Nchindo is critical of the government campaign. "We have taken a European message and delivered it here. The message is not tailored to address the cultural differences."

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