Brazzaville, 16 November 2007 -- One hundred twenty national HIV/AIDS Programme Managers in the African Region and WHO technical staff  working in the area of HIV/AIDS held their annual meeting in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, from 12-14 November 2007. The main objective of the meeting was to explore ways of strengthening health sector response to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment care and support towards universal access in the African region.

Opening the meeting, Dr Rufaro Chatora, Director of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, on behalf of the WHO Regional Director, stated that although the African Region carried a disproportionate burden of HIV/AIDS, encouraging results continued to be recorded at country level.

“Africa accounts for 11% of the world population but is home to more than 60% of people living with HIV.   In 2006, it was estimated that 72% of total deaths linked to AIDS occurred in the region”, Dr Chatora said.

Alluding to progress made so far, he stated that  30% of patients in the region  who needed access to antiretroviral therapy (ART)  had access to it,  with some countries reaching up  to 50% of those in need.  This, however, also means that   70% of those in need are not yet covered.

He also noted that  while 12% of the people in the region knew their HIV serological status, less than less than 11% of pregnant woman had access to services for HIV prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT), hence again underlining the need to accelerate HIV prevention efforts in the African region.

Dr Chatora expressed concern over the dual tuberculosis (TB) and HIV infection which, he said, constituted a major public health problem in the region. WHO and UNAIDS estimate that about 35% of TB patients are infected with HIV and 40% of deaths due to AIDS are attributable to TB.

The three -day meeting reviewed WHO strategic orientations and progress made in scaling up HIV prevention, treatment as well as care towards universal access. It also discussed constraints and challenges that should be addressed,  and made recommendations on the  best ways to address those challenges.

Participants also agreed on a core group of interventions that should be massively scaled up as a package in order to significantly reduce HIV incidence and AIDS related morbidity and mortality in the African region.

These include:

• Provider initiated testing and counseling
• Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission;
• Prevention for People Living with HIV/AIDS;
• Prevention of sexual transmission including promotion of male circumcision and management of sexually transmitted infections;
• Rolling out antiretroviral treatment and prevention and treatment of opportunistic infections including specific TB/HIV joint interventions;
• Ensuring Blood safety;
• Strengthening of health systems.

The three-day meeting ended with a clear message to participants   on the need to improve   performance at all levels, greater strategic focus on cost-effective and evidence based interventions and the production of concrete results.

For more information contact:

Technical contact:

Dr Innocent  Ntaganira

Tel: + 47 241 39271

Email: ntaganirai [at] afro.who.int (ntaganirai[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)

Media Contact:

Samuel T. Ajibola

Tel: + 47 241 39378

Email: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)