Zimbabwe to put 40,000 more on AIDS drugs by year-end

HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will put 40,000 more people on life saving anti-retroviral drugs by the end of the year despite an economic crisis that has hobbled the country's health care, state media reported on Tuesday.

The southern African country is among the worst hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic, killing more than 3,000 people every week and accounting for 70 percent of hospital admissions.

But Zimbabwe, in the grips of a deep recession, has also become one of the few AIDS bright spots on the continent after its HIV prevalence rate declined to 18.1 percent last year from 25 percent six years ago.

Health Minister David Parirenyatwa said the number of people receiving the life-prolonging medicines has increased from 60,000 in December to 80,000 this month but that the government would add another 40,000 patients by the end of the year.

"Currently the number of people on ARVs has grown to 80,000 since December last year and we hope to achieve our target of getting 120,000 by the end of the year," Parirenyatwa told the official Herald newspaper.

Parirenyatwa said that at least 300,000 people living with HIV/AIDS were in urgent need of ARVs.

Zimbabwe's drive to increase access to ARVs has been hampered by a severe shortage of foreign currency, itself a sign of an economic crisis that has pushed inflation past 3,700 percent and increased poverty levels.

The crisis has been particularly felt in the health sector, where basic drugs are in short supply while strikes for better pay by doctors and nurses have worsened the situation.

President Robert Mugabe -- who says Zimbabwe is showing the way for Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS -- rejects charges of mismanagement and blames the West for sabotaging the economy as punishment for seizing white-owned farms to distribute to blacks.