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Swaziland predicted extinction due to HIV/AIDS
Last reviewed: 30.06.2025
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Swaziland's hospitals have no more than two months' supply of HIV treatment drugs, Swaziland Health Minister Benedict Xaba said in a speech to the local parliament. As a result, patient organizations have predicted a sharp decline in the country's population.
Swaziland's health facilities provided antiretroviral drugs free of charge to HIV-infected patients. However, due to the country's ongoing economic crisis, the authorities decided to suspend funding for state institutions, including hospitals.
More than 60,000 Swazis are currently receiving antiretroviral therapy. Xaba called on his fellow Swazis living with HIV not to lose hope. He said the government had begun negotiations on foreign loans that would help replenish the state budget.
Thembi Nkambule, head of the Swaziland HIV/AIDS Patients' Organisation, said the number of patients receiving antiretroviral therapy had quadrupled between 2005 and 2011. She said the lack of drugs would significantly reduce those numbers. "Swazis will die en masse. Hope will be lost," Nkambule said.
Swaziland, with a population of about one million, has the highest proportion of HIV-infected people in the world. About 40% of adults in the African country are infected with the immunodeficiency virus. The average life expectancy of the population has halved since 2000 and is now less than 32 years.
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