1.5m Aids victims in Zimbabwe

HARARE (AP) - More than 1.5 million Zimbabweans - one in six - have contracted the virus that causes Aids and up to 1,000 people are being infected every 24 hours, a research group said yesterday. John Fraser-Mckenzie, head of the Commercial Farmers' Union Aids prevention programme, predicted the epidemic will have 'disastrous effects' on the country.

He said transport, finance, marketing and the farming sector were expected to suffer a severe loss of skills over the next decade unless the spread of Aids is slowed. In Africa, Aids is mainly transmitted by heterosexual contact.