Almost a third of Zimbabwean lawmakers have volunteered to be tested for HIV in a campaign to boost Aids awareness in the southern African nation, said Patience Dube, an operations officer for Population Service International.

About 60 of the country’s 198 legislators have been tested so far and the program will continue tomorrow, Dube said today in Harare, the capital.

“This helps to fight stigma associated with the disease,” Blessing Chebundo, a lawmaker from the mining town of Kwekwe, said after being tested.

Zimbabwe has an HIV infection rate of about 15 percent, according to the National Aids Council, a state agency.

To contact the reporter on this story: Godfrey Marawanyika in Johannesburg at gmarawanyika@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net