Rome (Fides Service) - The face of HIV/AIDS is ever younger. More than half the 14,000 new cases of infection by HIV virus registered every day are persons under 25 and most are women.
In Ivory Coast at the end of 2001, there were 690,000 adults (15-49) infected with the virus HIV/AIDS: 84,000 children new-born to 14 years and about 400,000 women aged 15 to 49. The total number of children infected was 770,000. Young men aged 15 to 24 were 63,000, while infected girls of the same age were 180,000.
Due to fighting in Ivory Coast more than 800.000 people are displaced and 500,000 more have fled the country. In 2003 medical aid sent to Ivory Coast included medicine for 1.2 million people; 60.000 mosquito nets; special food for 4,470 undernourished children .
Instability, forced migration, military operations as well as increasing prostitution aggravate poverty and increase the risk of spreading HIV/AIDS. Ivory Coast is the west African country with the highest percentage of AIDS which affects more than 12% of the population.
UNICEF is working for the prevention of mother-child transmission, community awareness, medical assistance to patients and AIDS orphans. (AP) (27/4/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:21; Parole:242)