A NATIONAL Aids Council (NAC) official has said about eighty percent of commercial sex workers who opted for voluntary HIV testing in Zimbabwe over the last five years were found to be HIV positive.

NAC behaviour change manager Oscar Mundida told a recent workshop in Harare that research indicated that nearly all prostitutes who opted for voluntary counseling and testing were living with HIV and/or Aids.

"Of all the vulnerable groups, prostitutes are the largest group contributing to the spread of the disease as well as the most likely to get infected," he said.

Participants at the workshop called for more policy initiatives that would ensure awareness and prevention programmes targeted all vulnerable groups.

NAC youth co-coordinator Beauty Nyamwanza said there was need to have programmes targeting homosexuals as these were largely in terms of interventions.

"Unlike prostitutes, homosexuals are not being targeted at all. Even though society generally does not condone the existence of this group, it is important to know that they are especially vulnerable to HIV and Aids," she said.

A recent UNAids study revealed that at least 1 300 people in Zimbabwe die each week from Aids-related illnesses.

Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst hit by the epidemic with at least one in seven adults infected.

However government data indicates that prevalence rates have declined from a high of 23.7 percent in 2001 to 14.3 percent in 2010.