Integrated Regional Information Networks - December 9, 2003

Jean-Charles Kra, the World Bank representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), told IRIN in Kinshasa, the capital, that negotiations with the government could take place in January 2004. "At present we are finalising the dossier," he said.

According to a survey carrried out in 2003 by the national organisation fighting HIV/AIDS in the country, the Programme national de lutte contre le sida (PNLS), the HIV/AIDS epidemic could threaten more than half the population within 10 years. The Congo has an estimated population of 50 million.

PNLS director Jack Kokolomani told IRIN the prevalence of the epidemic among people aged between 15 and 40 was 15-19 percent higher than in many other countries. "The vast majority of people who die today from AIDS in our country are aged between 15 and 40. Infection begins very early, around 10, 11, 13 or 14 years," he said.

In a report publicised during the UN World Aids Day on 1 December, PNLS reported that precocious sexuality was the reason for the high rate of infection. Experts say 83 percent of patients are infected throught sexual intercourse.

"Some [individuals] confessed in the survey to having started having sexual intercourse at around the age of eight, nine and 10 years," Kokolomani said.

"Most began between 12 and 14. Fifty percent of young people will have had their first sexual relationship by the age of 16." He added, "If this trend continues, it will not be an exaggeration to say that in 10 years time there won't be a future generation."

In view of the threat, PNLS has started to sensitise the public, pointing to the example of churches and different religious communities in Congo which have set up an inter-denominational committee to fight HIV/AIDS.

Within this framework, Methodist pastor Daniel Ngoy Mulunda questioned the message coming from the churches that abstinence was the way to fight the pandemic. "Our message that you shouldn't use condoms has failed, you cannot continue to preach morality and abstinence to people who are ill," he said on World Aids Day, refering to a declaration made by a conference of African churches - Conference des Eglises de toute l'Afrique (CETA) - during a meeting in Cameroon held from 22-29 November.

Churches and religious communities are supporting the programme to fight HIV/AIDS by passing on a message of prevention to their faithful. "We [PNLS] have reached an understanding with the churches which have accepted to pass on the message about condoms because it is recommended by science. But they refuse to do it with publicity," Kokolomani said. Churches were also helping by taking charge of people affected by AIDS, he said.

Kokolomani said the prevalance of HIV/AIDS had reached 12-15 percent in four of the country's 11 provinces, whereas the average rate of infection in provinces spared the worst of the five-year war was between five and six per cent. The most affected regions, Kokolomani said, were the provinces of North and South Kivu, Maniema and Orientale, in the east and northeast of Congo.

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