Panafrican News Agency - November 28, 2001
According to a survey conducted by the Health ministry 15 years after a national HIV/AIDS control committee was set up, the 15- 29 age group accounts for 30 percent of the infected population.
Youths under 15 account for 11 percent of the prevalence rate, those of the 20-24 age range 12 percent and those between 24 and 29, 9 percent.
The health authorities faulted the local media for failing to help educate the public on dimensions of the pandemic.
To remedy that situation, the Health ministry said it was contemplating a joint initiative with the ministry of Communication to mobilise and sensitise the public.
It said a new approach has been defined to step up the campaign against HIV/AIDS, adding that it was now time to move from seminars and talk shows to action.
Authorities at the Yaounde Central Hospital reported that more than a thousand HIV/AIDS cases have been registered there since the beginning of the year.
In Cameroon, 90 of the HIV/AIDS patients contracted the disease through unprotected sexual intercourse - mostly heterosexual.
Blood and mother-to-child transmissions account for about 10 percent of cases.
Estimated at 0.5 percent in 1987, the country's HIV/AIDS prevalence rate has risen to 11 percent.
The number of the people living with the virus is estimated at more than 937,000. According to some statistics, 1 out of 9 sexually active Cameroonians is infected.
Women are reportedly more infected than men, at a ratio of 3 women for every 2 men.
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