ABUJA, April 30 (AFP) - About 2.3 million Nigerians have so far died of HIV/AIDS while 3.8 million others are carriers of the disease, health minister Eyitayo Lambo said Friday.

"I am very unhappy to report that as of today, Nigeria is still one of the countries worst affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the world, next only to South Africa and India, in terms of the number of people living with HIV/AIDS," he told a news conference.

"HIV/AIDS has now become the most nagging health problem affecting individuals, families and communities" in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, with about 130 million people, said the minister.

The first case was recorded in Nigeria in 1986.

"Since then, the epidemic has grown rapidly and expanded beyond the limit of the known and commonly classified as high-risk groups to the general population," he said.

Over the last decade, survey results have shown an upward trend in the average national infection rate.

It stood at 1.8 percent in 1991, increasing to 3.8 percent two years later. In 1995, the rate went up to 4.5 percent and by 2001 had risen to 5.8 percent, the minister said.

"The epidemic has contributed greatly to the observed reduction in the life expectancy of Nigerians," he said.

At least 13 states in Nigeria and Abuja, the nation's capital, have HIV prevalence rates of over five percent. No state or community in Nigeria is unaffected by the epidemic, said Lambo.

Young people between the ages of 20 and 29 are the worst affected by the disease, with the infection rate for their age group averaging 5.6 percent, the minister said.

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