HIV/AIDS CONTRIBUTE ON INFANT MORTALITY 

 HIV/AIDS and malnutrition diseases have been singled out as the most contributory factors to infant mortality in the country. The Senior Statistician from the Department of Statistics, Mrs' Matlokitsi Makoa, when presenting a paper on demographic and reproductive health survey dissemination workshop in Mokhotlong on Tuesday 01 October,2002 said this.

Mrs Makoa, said according to their findings at the survey conducted in May 2001, shows the rate of infant mortality is high, especially among boys' children, adding that the views of several interviewees showed that at birth, girls are stronger than boys.
She however, noted that the rate of infant mortality is expected to increase, especially when the spread of HIV/AIDS is rampant, and more children are born infected.
She said, the surveys show that the infant mortality rate is also high in the rural areas than in urban areas. The statistician said the situation calls for a lot of work for the department of health to sensitise communities on continuing education to combat HIV/AIDS and malnutrition in children.

Talking about knowledge about HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, Mr. Teboho Makhalane, also from the Bureau of Statistics, said "The knowledge about HIV/AIDS is sufficient", but said according to the 2002 reproductive health survey, about 94 percent of males, and 93 percent of females had heard of HIV/AIDS. Mr. Makhalane pointed out that though the proportions were marginally higher in urban areas than in rural areas, adolescents aged between 12 and 14 years
were least knowledgeable about the HIV/AIDS spread.

He said, it appears that educational campaigns about HIV/AIDS have targeted older persons rather adolescents and children. The purpose of the workshop was to brief government departments about findings of the demographics survey conducted in May 2001 as well as the reproductive survey of 2002 countrywide. Similar workshops were held in nine districts, and the last workshop will be for parliamentarians. It is expected that the data would be useful for districts' planners when undertaking development plans in their respective areas.

01 October,2002