Ivory Coast to fight AIDS among drivers

The government of Ivory Coast has launched a new campaign against AIDS, targeted specifically at lorry and taxi drivers -- a group at special risk.

Large signs showing a grinning lorry driver proudly brandishing a packet of condoms will be placed on the main highways from Abidjan to Burkina Faso, Mali and other countries.

There will also be educational jingles on radio stations and eventually automatic condom dispensing machines.

Ivory Coast has one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS in the world with about ten per cent of the population affected; the BBC West Africa correspondent says its economic success has lead to a huge transient population of traders and migrant workers, many of who succumb to temptation while away from their regular partners.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service