Ugandan AIDS deaths top 800,000

The Ugandan health ministry says more than eight-hundred-thousand Ugandans have died of AIDS since the disease was first diagnosed in the south-west of the country seventeen years ago.

In a report, the ministry also said nearly one-and-a-half million Ugandans -- over seven percent of the country's population -- carry HIV, the virus which causes AIDS.

But the report said the rate of HIV infection was declining, particularly among young people.

It said talking openly about the disease had helped bring down the rate of infection by almost half in the last seven years.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service