A Zimbabwe court has jailed a woman after she sexually abused her friend's 3-year-old son and infected him with the HIV virus

SABC News:

State radio said the woman abused the toddler, whose mother had left him in her care during a trip out of town, on several occasions last November while giving him a bath.

The boy tested positive for the virus which causes Aids after his mother took him to hospital after he developed a white discharge on his genitals.

She was given a 15-year sentence yesterday, with five years suspended on condition she does not reoffend.

The government says an estimated 1.61 million people out of Zimbabwe's 12 million population are infected with HIV and experts say Aids kills about 3 000 each week.

Last year Unicef said one child in the southern African country succumbs to the pandemic every five minutes.

State media reported last week that Zimbabwe was running out of anti-retroviral drugs to treat HIV/Aids as a foreign currency shortage hampers government efforts to provide 20 000 people with the life-saving medicine.

The health sector is among those hardest hit by Zimbabwe's economic crisis, which has also brought shortages of food and fuel along with water and power cuts and an inflation rate of almost 1 000%, the highest in the world.

Woman infected 3-year-old boy with HIV