The secretary to Burkina Faso's National AIDS Council, Dr. Didier Romuald Bakouan over the weekend urged the government to intensify the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Currently, Burkina Faso has close to 110,000 people living with HIV/AIDS, out of which 52,200 receive anti-retroviral treatment, which is equivalent to 67 percent of the patients.

Bakouan said the national prevalence rate stands at 0.9 percent, whereas the rates go as high as 2.6 percent in the town of Gaoua, 2.5 percent in Koudougou, 2.2 percent in Bobo-Dioulasso, 2.2 percent in Ouahigouya and 2 percent in the capital Ouagadougou.

Out of the people living with AIDS, there is a strong prevalence among specific groups like sex workers (16.1 percent), homosexuals (3.6 percent) and detainees (2.98 percent), he said.

Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore has highlighted the need "to double efforts in the fight against AIDS and eliminate the disease in the country by 2020." Endit

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