PanAfrica: Africa Faces Gap in Prevention of HIV/Aids: Meles

PanAfrica: Africa Faces Gap in Prevention of HIV/Aids: Meles

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Tuesday that Africa was facing a gap in the prevention of HIV/AIDS, which he said is spreading at an alarming rate.

Speaking at the launching of the HIV Prevention Acceleration in Africa; a joint launch of the African Union (AU) Commission and UN agencies, Meles said a lot remained in in controlling the spread of the virus in the continent, the only continent with growing rates of HIV infection.

"Africa, as we all know, is the only continent that continues to face alarming rates of HIV infection annually which indicates a major gap in prevention efforts in the continent," Meles told the gathering.

He also indicated that it was high time Africa muscled up efforts in the fight against the spread of HIV, which, he said in the year 2005 alone, "3.2 million HIV infections happened in Africa", out of the global 4.9 million new infections.

"When one takes in to account the fact that HIV/AIDS in our continent disproportionately affects young people and women, one realizes how critical it is for Africa to accelerate its HIV prevention efforts," he said.

Meles said that although certain encouraging works have, been done in some African countries in the prevention of the virus, they were not enough considering the challenges Africa faces in that regard.

"The progress made has however not been commensurate with the challenges we face. That is why we need to scale up our prevention measures," he noted.

With regard to what has been done locally, Meles said "significant progress" has been registered in accelerating prevention activities.

At the end of 2005, around 658 voluntary counseling and testing centers (five-fold increase from what it was in 2003) catering for 451,000 individuals have bee set up in the country, according to Meles.

Meles also noted that various works related to mother to child prevention and free antiretroviral treatment was being given to persons living with the virus.

Around 1.7 million are said to live with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia.

According to available information, out of the 5 million new infections globally recorded in 2005, 3.2 million (64 %) were in Sub Saharan Africa countries.

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