Senegal: AIDS takes hold in pilgrim town of Touba

Senegal has one of the lowest HIV infection rates in Africa, but the central town of Touba, a Muslim shrine where over one million people gathered last week, is a hotspot where prevalence rates have shot well above the national average. “We don’t know exactly what the HIV prevalence rate is in Touba, but it is considerably higher than the national average of 1.5 percent,” Doctor Mamadou Dieng, who works in a health centre in Touba, told IRIN.