The Eastern Cape is bearing a burden of disease displaced from other provinces, the provincial Health Department said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo was reacting to findings of the third national HIV prevalence survey, which showed a 5% rise in HIV/Aids prevalence in the province in people aged from 15 to 49 between 2002 and 2008.

Four provinces - the Western Cape, Gauteng, Northern Cape and the Free State - reported a drop.

Kupelo said because the Eastern Cape was a largely rural province, with little industry, many people went to other provinces to seek work, on the mines in Gauteng, the sugar cane plantations in KwaZulu-Natal and farms in the Western Cape.

"They leave here healthy, when they get sick they are sent home," he said.

"This applies not only to HIV/Aids, but also to tuberculosis, especially among miners."

Despite the survey figures, the province believed its HIV/Aids interventions were having an impact on the ground.

"The budget to fight HIV/Aids has been increasing steadily," Kupelo said.