HIV 'high among teens in Zimbabwe
03/02/2010
The HIV rate among teenagers in Zimbabwe is particularly high, a new report has highlighted.
A recent study found that almost 50 per cent of teenagers admitted to two hospitals in Zimbabwe were HIV-positive.
Conducted jointly by researchers in London and the African country and published in PLoS Medicine, the report is entitled Causes of Acute Hospitalisation in Adolescence: Burden and Spectrum of HIV-Related Morbidity in a Country with an Early-Onset and Severe HIV Epidemic.
It found HIV to be the most common cause of teenager hospitalisation in Harare.
The authors of the paper called for improved recognition of the disease in order to promote earlier diagnosis and care methods.
Meanwhile, youth organisation Awake Zimbabwe told the Zimbabwean newspaper last month that despite funding problems, it aims to continue its work spreading health messages among at-risk groups in the country.
It achieves this through the mediums of dance, poetry, music and drama.
Written by Dan Parr
