AIDS kills some 2,880 Tanzania teachers annually

	Tweet

Tanzania is losing an average of 2,880 school teachers to HIV/AIDS every year because of lack of condoms and life-prolonging drugs, the education minister said on Thursday.

Most of Tanzania’s 155,000 teachers, who make up nearly 50 percent of all government employees, live in rural areas where condoms and drugs are hard to get.

“We have calculated that a total of 2,880 teachers are dying from HIV/AIDS every year,” Education Minister Joseph Mungai told reporters.

Mungai said he had handed the Tanzania AIDS Commission proposals to distribute condoms to remote villages and islands. There are also plans to provide life-prolonging antiretroviral drugs to teachers who have developed AIDS.

“I have appealed for special measures which can lead to the supply of condoms as well as to the supply of life sustaining drugs to the affected teachers, so that their lives can be elongated and they can continue to teach,” Mungai said.

With about 12 to 15 percent of Tanzanian adults infected with the virus, the health ministry has said it will sharply increase the number of HIV patients receiving the medicine to over 40,000 by the end of the year.

According to U.N. statistics, about 200,000 people in Tanzania are in acute need of medicines that slow the progress of AIDS. 

RELATED STORIES:
HIV-AIDS newest stalker of children, Unicef says   HIV teens taking extra risks   U.S. to double AIDS-fighting support to Haiti   Apartheid gov’t had AIDS plan for South Africa   U.S. abstinence hurts Uganda AIDS success: report   WHO Nixes 2 Approved HIV Drugs   U.S. prepares plan for safe AIDS drugs to the poor   China approves testing for potential AIDS vaccine   Kill Aids with positive attitude   China’s cabinet orders urgent measures to curb AIDS   700,000 AIDS patients get drugs, funds short   Nigeria to make cheap Aids drugs

Comments

[ + Post Your Own ]

Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not Armenian Medical Network's stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.

There are no comments for this entry yet. [ + Comment here + ]