Brazzaville, 1 December 2009 -- The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, has called on health workers at all levels to play a greater role in HIV primary prevention and encourage safe sex behaviour – abstinence, delay of age at first sexual intercourse, faithfulness and correct and consistent condom use – with a view to stemming the incidence of HIV/AIDS in the African Region.

Dr Sambo’s appeal is contained in his message marking World AIDS Day 2009 which will be observed on 1 December under the theme “Universal access and human rights”.

In the message, the Regional Director urged leaders to throw their full clout behind the fight against HIV/AIDS saying, “I call on Africa’s leadership to be more outspoken about issues of sexuality, particularly in relation to safe sex, and to put in place appropriate legislation and policies that promote human rights and universal access to health care”.

Dr Sambo also spoke of the “unprecedented progress” made in the expansion of health sector interventions for HIV prevention, treatment and care over the past two years. By way of illustration, he said that in just one year, health facilities providing HIV testing and counseling services increased by 50%, with innovative strategies enabling these services to reach more than 17 million people aged 15 years and above.

In 2008, he said, over half a million HIV-infected pregnant women, representing 45% of those in need, received antiretroviral drugs to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother-to-child, compared to 33% in 2007. In addition, about 3 million HIV-infected persons received antiretroviral treatment in 2008, representing a coverage rate of 44%, compared with 33% in 2007. “It is encouraging to note that women represent 64% of the total number of beneficiaries of antiretroviral treatment”. All this progress demonstrates the commitment of Governments, the people, civil society and development partners involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS”, he added.

However, in spite of these encouraging trends, a lot more needs to be done as comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS is still lacking, knowledge of HIV status remains limited, more than half of the people in need do not access the life-saving drugs, and the majority of patients start treatment when they are already at advanced stages of AIDS. Furthermore, heterosexual contact continues to be the main mode of HIV transmission.

“These are some of the challenges we need to address urgently if we are to make an impact in reversing the trend of the epidemic in the African Region”, Dr Sambo said.

He called for intensification of HIV prevention alongside treatment and care and redoubling of efforts to reach every district with a package of interventions known to be cost-effective.

These include promoting healthier lifestyles and behaviours; routine offer of HIV testing and counselling; screening for HIV in all pregnant women; administration of ARVs to eligible women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV; offer of safe male circumcision services in districts with high HIV prevalence; and implementation of strategies for the control of TB/HIV co-infection.

With about 10% of the world population, the WHO African Region remains home to two-thirds of the global number of people living with HIV/AIDS. Of the 2.7 million new HIV infections that occurred world wide in 2007, 1.9 million were in Africa.

For more information, please contact:

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