BLANTYRE, Dec 10 (AFP) - About 70,000 Malawians die of AIDS every year, health authorities said Monday.

"We estimate 70,000 productive lives go annually due to AIDS," Owen Kalua, executive director of the National AIDS commission, told AFP.

Over 350,000 Malawians have died of the killer disease since the first reported case of AIDS in Malawi in 1985.

Malawi last year launched a five-year, 110-million-dollar national plan aimed at "breakng the silence" about the disease in this conservative society where sex is still a taboo topic.

Kalua said the death rate "is abnormally high," adding the impoverished southern African nation "continues to experience new infections." About 250 people are infected every day with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

It is estimated that one in every 10 Malawians lives with HIV.

Anti-retroviral AIDS drugs, though available in state hospitals, are beyond the reach of many Malawians, who earn as little as 20 US dollars per month.

About 60 percent of 11 million Malawians live below the poverty line.

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