As the world celebrated the World Aids Day yesterday, it is estimated that the number of persons living with HIV/Aids globally in 2007 is put at 33.2million, according to a United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids-UNAIDS 2007 latest HIV report.

In Rwanda, the official celebration of the event takes places today at Jali Club in Kigali
The above estimates were jointly done by UNAIDS and World Health Organization.

The mission of the WHO-UNAIDS is among other things to promote the development, facilitate evaluation, and address future availability of preventive HIV vaccines, with a focus on the need of developing countries.

The process and methodology used by UNAIDS and WHO were reviewed and endorsed by an International Consultations on Aids epidemiological convened jointly by the UNAIDS secretariat and WHO on 14-15 November 2007 in Gevena.

According to UNAIDS and WHO 2007 estimates, every day about 6800 persons become infected with HIV and 5700 die of Aids, mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services.

Since the start of the epidemic in 1980s, HIV has infected more than 60 million men, women and children and AIDS has cost the lives of nearly 20 million adults and children.
Despite the intense international response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, HIV continues to spread, causing more than 14,000 new infections every day, 95 per cent of these are in the developing world.

Rwanda
Rwanda is held up as a success story and the government lauded for the progress it has made with the official prevalence rate put at only 3 per cent, according to Ministry of health 2005 survey.

The country is one of the few African countries where rates of HIV infection are relatively down and the country is seen as a rare example of success in a continent facing a severe AIDS crisis.

The 2005 survey also shows a fall in HIV prevalence rate, dropping from over ten percent to about three percent of Rwanda’s 8.5 million people.

The first cases of AIDS were reportedly identified in Rwanda in the year 1983 at Kigali Centre Hospital.

The prevalence rate in 1986 among the general population revealed the prevalence rate of 17.8 per cent in urban settings and 1.3 per cent in rural areas.

The second survey on HIV prevalence conducted in 2005 among the female population aged between 15-49 and male population aged between 15-59 (Demographic and Health Survey: DHS 2005) showed a prevalence rate of 3 per cent at national level.

Prevalence rate according to socio-demographic characteristics 2005 DHS showed that women are the most infected by HIV with the prevalence rate of 3.6 per cent against men with the prevalence rate of 2.3 per cent. 

The age group recording the lowest prevalence is that aged 15-19 with the prevalence rate of 0.5 per cent.

The level of knowledge of HIV is still insufficient among the general population and needs to be improved. According to the 2005 DHS results, only 53.6 per cent of women against 57.6 per cent of men have a combined knowledge on AIDS.
Likewise, results from the same study show that the use of condom still remains low especially among the female population with 19.7 per cent against 40.9 per cent among male population.  As for the level of HIV testing, results from 2005 DHS showed that 75.8 per cent of women against 78.1 per cent of men had never had any HIV test. 

The minimum age of sex debut is 20 years for surveyed women-aged 15-49 and 20 years for men aged 15-59.

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