Tanzanian Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda has announced that the country’s national HIV/AIDS infection rate had dropped down to 5.8 percent in 2007, down from 7.0 percent in 2003.

While addressing a press meeting in Dar es Salaam on Friday, Mr. Pinda said that the infection rate of women had dropped to 6.8 percent in 2007 from 8.0 percent in 2003 while that of men also came down to 4.7 percent in 2007 from 7.0 percent during 2003.

The recent estimations were confirmed by the National Bureau of Statistics, the office of the Zanzibar Chief Statistician, the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in a study conducted on malaria and HIV/AIDS indicators during the last year 2007/2008.

Mr. Pinda praised the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign in Zanzibar as the rate of infection in the Indian Ocean archipelago had dangled to 0.6 percent.

More than 2.3 million women and 1.8 million men throughout the country participated in the voluntary blood testing operation that inaugurated in July 2007.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete led the campaign.

Presently, Tanzania has a population of more than 40 million.

Dr. Geoffrey Somi from the Tanzanian National AIDS Control Program said that around194,149 were tested positive for the HIV virus, out of the total number of people screened.