Kiteto — President Jakaya Kikwete on Saturday called for intensification of the war against HIV/Aids pandemic.

Speaking to residents of Kibaya in Kiteto District, Manyara Region, the President said HIV/Aids was still a threat to the country's development.

He added that despite concerted efforts by the Government with the support of development partners to combat it, the pandemic was still claiming more lives with increased infections.

He pointed out that rural areas have not been spared as was the case in the past when many infected people appeared to be those living in urban centres.

According to him, much concentration by medical experts in the fight against the pandemic has been on testing pregnant women attending clinics.

He said recent figures have indicated that many rural dwellers were equally affected with the disease, including remote villages inhabited by nomadic livestock-keepers like in Kiteto.

The President blamed unsafe sex for the worsening HIV/Aids situation and appealed to the residents of Kiteto to avoid being tempted into that.

He said despite public sensitisation on the scourge, many people appeared not to have changed their behaviour of having multiple sex partners or cared less on the use of condoms.

Before travelling to Kibaya, the president was in neighbouring Simanjiro district where he officially opened a National Microfinance Bank (NMB) branch at Orksermet, the district headquarters.

The branch is the only banking facility in the vast district which was created in 1994 after the split of Kiteto district.

Yesterday the President was expected in Babati, the Manyara region headquarters, where he was to open a National Bank of Commerce (NBC) branch and a new multi-billion shilling regional block.

President Kikwete is on a six-day visit to Manyara Region, the first since assuming presidency nearly three years ago.

The visit will also take him to Hanang and Mbulu districts. In Hanang, he would inspect privatised wheat farms and Haydom Lutheran Hospital, the designated district hospital for Mbulu.