Tests on Africans in refugee camps found that, contrary to popular belief, the AIDS rate among refugees was lower than the general population in Africa, a UN expert said today.
Prostitution, increased incidents of rape, low condom use and the scarcity of healthcare in the camps were all thought to have created conditions for HIV/AIDS to spread rapidly.
"It's been assumed for many years that because refugees are seen as behaviourally at a higher risk that they must have a higher infection rate. That is not the case," said Mr Paul Spiegel, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees' (UNHCR) senior HIV/AIDS technical officer.
Until recently UNHCR did not carry out testing in refugee camps for fear of further stigmatising them.
But in the last two years tests have been conducted on pregnant women in seven camps across eastern and southern Africa. The results were then compared with infection rates among the local population. In five of the seven cases the rate was significantly lower among the refugees.
"There is huge reduction in mobility and accessibility for refugees," Mr Spiegel said. "In Sierra Leone and Angola, for example, you've lost the infrastructure. Refugee men can't so easily go to urban areas sleep with commercial sex workers and then come back and infect their wives."
Kakuma camp in northern Kenya houses 80,000 Sudanese refugees. Tests showed infection rates inside the camp were just five per cent, compared with 18 per cent among the surrounding Kenyan population.
In refugee camps at Dadaab in western Kenya, roughly 120,000 Somalis are housed. The UNHCR tests found infection rates among the refugees was 0.5 per cent, compared with four per cent in the neighbouring town of Garissa.
The United Nations AIDS group estimates about 30 million people have HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated there are 4.5 million refugees in 29 countries across Africa. The biggest hosting country is Tanzania, which has an estimated half a million people from both Rwanda and Burundi.