Swaziland, the small kingdom locked between South Africa and Mozambique, may have the worst HIV infection rate in the world, according to figures released this week in a New Year address by its Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini.
Research carried out in 2001 has led to an estimate that 38.6 percent of Swazi adults are HIV positive, up from 34.2 percent in 2000. The estimates are based on antenatal prevalence surveys.
Public health officials have admitted to both Reuters and the UN news agency Plus News that the estimate is probably out of date, and that the real picture could be worse.
Although King Mswati III, the last absolute monarch in Africa, has declared HIV a national crisis, critics charge that little has been done to respond to the epidemic.
Swaziland has a population of just under one million, and the local representative of the UN Children’s Fund has estimated that approximately 20,000 are developing AIDS each year. Swaziland spends approximately $4 million a year on all health care, so medical facilities for people who develop AIDS are extremely limited.
Prime Minister Dlamini has promised that antiretrovirals will be provided for the prevention of mother to child transmission at government hospitals during 2003.