Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
Latest findings by the committee show that 33 percent of the population aged between 15 and 29 years are HIV-positive.
The rate of infection among the sexually active population shot up from 0.5 percent in 1987 to 11 percent in 2000.
Data compiled by the same committee indicates that 25 Cameroonians were infected with the AIDS-causing virus every hour.
Meanwhile, public health minister Urbain Olanguena Awono on Monday launched in Yaounde an "emergency strategic information against AIDS" campaign to raise public perception of the disease and its effects on the population.
The two-month campaign coincides with events related to the World AIDS Day to be observed 1 December.
Organisers of the campaign say if nothing is done immediately to check the spread of HIV, Cameroon may lose half of its population within a few years.
During the first week, the campaign focuses on the dangers of AIDS to the population, families, national economy, and development. Voluntary, anonymous, free blood screenings are organised in principal towns of the country's 10 provinces.
Awono said the government's intention was to bring the infection rate down to less than 10 percent in 2002. He stressed the need for every individual to change their sexual behaviour and avoid unprotected sex.
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