JOHANNESBURG, April 18 (Xinhua) -- South African organizations working in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention urged Jacob Zuma, the country's former deputy president, who allegedly raped an HIV positive woman, to undergo another blood test to determine his status.

    They said his wives and girlfriends should also be tested, local newspaper The Star reported on Tuesday.

    Zuma, who is on trial for the alleged rape in November last year, told the Johannesburg High Court last month that he had undergone a test in March and the result came back negative.

    However, HIV/AIDS groups said Zuma had not specified what kind of test he had taken, and that he needed to take another one after the six-month window period since November 2 had passed.

    "We would strongly advise him for his own health and for his partners to consider another test," Sipho Mthathi with the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), South Africa's leading AIDS lobby group, was quoted as saying.

    Defending himself, Zuma said he had consensual and unprotected sex with the woman. He caused an outcry by saying he believed he was at minimal risk of contracting the disease and had tried to minimize the risk further by taking a shower.

    The statement by Zuma, once chairman of South Africa's NationalAIDS Council, has sparked fierce reactions from anti-AIDS groups for it misled the public and caused a severe setback to prevention efforts in the country, described as the epicenter of global AIDS epidemic.

    Carrie Shelver, from People Opposing Women Abuse, said that given Zuma's statements on AIDS, "how much is he going to care about whether he contracted the virus and infected his wives?"

    Zuma, 64, also faces separate charges of corruption and will stand on trial in July. He was sacked by President Thabo Mbeki in June last year.

    Zuma is a popular politician in South Africa and a veteran of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) struggle to end apartheid. At one stage he was championed by trade unionists and those on the political left as a likely presidential candidate to succeed Thabo Mbeki when he completes his term in 2009.

    But the charges of rape and corruption appear to have left his political career in tatters. Enditem