Panafrican News Agency - November 30, 2001
According to statistics at the national committee on the fight against AIDS (CNLS), the prevalence rate is currently 11-17 percent among the sexually active population in Cameroon.
Some 600 Cameroonians contract the disease every 24 hours, the committee said, adding that young men, women, soldiers, lorry drivers and prostitutes are the most affected.
"HIV/AIDS infection remains a topical issue, as it becomes a threat to the country's socio-economic development because of its rapid spread," CNLS warns.
In addition, the committee noted a stronger tendency in some at-risk groups such as servicemen (15 percent) and prostitutes (25-45 percent).
The 2000 UNAIDS report confirmed the same alarming assessment, saying the sero-prevalence rate in the late 1980s was estimated at 1 percent among women doing prenatal consultations. But reached 5 percent in 1996.
Another study carried out between 1993 and 1994 by UNAIDS gives a prevalence rate of 15 percent among lorry drivers and 17 percent in the south-western and the Littoral provinces.
The report reveals an important macroeconomic impact of HIV/AIDS in Cameroon on households, rural communities, trade and industry, the health sector and as on education systems and the sector of health.
However, experts advised that the reports be taken with caution because AIDS tests are not yet systematic in Cameroon.
"With the intermingling of populations, these figures are likely to become a fact of national stature, as well in big cities and in rural areas," Lazare Kaptue, owner of a private hospital in Yaounde, was quoted as affirming.
Kaptue's laboratory, which diagnoses immuno-deficiency virus on the breast, recently discovered a new stock of AIDS, type O, and highlighted some stereotypes hitherto unknown, he said.
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