GABORONE, Nov 2, 2006 (AFP) - AIDS-afflicted Botswana will this month start conducting HIV tests on infants aged 16 weeks and above under a United States-funded programme, an official said Thursday.
"This programme is a result of partnership between (Botswana's) ministry of health and the US government," said Doug Johnson, an official working here under US President George W. Bush's PEPFAR initiative.
PEPFAR, or the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, was announced in 2003. It is a five-year, 15-billion-dollar plan aimed at combating the disease in more than 120 countries.
"The early infant diagnosis programme is going nationwide this month and will be offered in various health centres," Johnson said.
Infants were earlier tested for HIV at 18 months and above.
Johnson said a pilot project for the early detection system for infants had been run successfully in the country's north, costing 102,000 dollars. He said PEPFAR would allocate an additional 425,000 dollars for the national testing project.
A study conducted last year by Botswana's health ministry and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that out of 1,917 infants with one or more HIV-positive parent, only seven tested positive.
Botswana's health ministry has called AIDS an emergency and says 38.5 percent of the adult population carries the HIV virus which can lead to AIDS.
A 2006 UNAIDS report put Botswana's adult HIV prevalence rate at about 24 percent.
Anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs, which dent the virus' ability to replicate itself and weaken the body's immune system, are sponsored by the government in what the health ministry says is the first of its kind in Africa.
A total of 68,440 people were receiving ARVs by June this year, the health ministry says. Of these, 59,940 were sponsored by the state.
The government has set a target of 150,000 on treatment by 2009, but has expressed concerns about the costs.
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