THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN JOURNAL OF HIV MEDICINE AUGUST 2004 33

There were 37.8 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide at the end of 2003, and 2.9 million had died in the past year. HIV/AIDS is spreading unchecked across Africa and parts of Asia. The African continent has 29.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and approximately 4.8 million new infections were recorded in 2003. In Lesotho, national adult prevalence has reached 31%.1 Lesotho, a developing country in sub-Saharan Africa with a population of 2.057 million, reported its first AIDS case in 1986; however, it had 360 000 people living with HIV/AIDS in 2001.2 In 2000, 59 % of the reported full-blown AIDS cases were clustered in the 20- 39-year range and the majority of HIV-positive cases were young females (aged less than 19 years).3 Estimation of the HIV/AIDS prevalence in Lesotho is based on data from sentinel surveillance of antenatal and sexually transmitted infection clinic attendees,2 and reported AIDS cases.3 The estimate could be higher than the actual prevalence according to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey.4 Mortality surveillance using the routine vital statistics and censuses reports can supplement the sentinel surveillance data and methods are available for correcting under-registration and misclassification of deaths,5 such as th