Harare, 10 July 2003 -- Seventeen Eastern and Southern African countries (1) have for the developed "road maps " to guide them in scaling up access to care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, which is estimated to have killed 1.5 million people in the two sub regions in 2002. 
The road maps, which are country-specific, were fashioned out at a 7 to 9 July workshop in Harare, Zimbabwe, by HIV/AIDS programme managers and other health officials from the 17 countries, and endorsed by senior policy makers -- Permanent Secretaries of Health Ministries or their representatives --from the two sub-regions.

Typically, a road map defines the process that each individual country would follow in developing, updating and finalizing its national plan and programme for comprehensive care and treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), and describes how such plan or programme is translated into action.

It also specifies countries' technical support needs -- designed to inform the kind of support to be provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other partners in scaling up treatment and care for PLWHA in individual countries.

Other prominent features of each road map are a proposed target for the number of persons to be reached with antiretroviral treatment by the end of 2005, and a review of existing country plan and programme which identifies how their components could be strengthened to ensure targets are met.

Ten components or areas of antiretroviral treatment are outlined in each country road map.

These include: developing and enabling a public policy environment; partnerships (involving and mobilizing stakeholders); infrastructure; service delivery; and human resources for ARV treatment (ART). Others are costing and financing of ART programmes, the putting in place of management systems and information management and communication as well as monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.

1 Angola, Botswana, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya Mozambique, Seychelles, Mauritius, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe

For further information, please contact

Samuel T. Ajibola
Public Information and Communication Unit 
World Health Organization - Regional Office for Africa 
P.O. Box 6 Brazzaville, Congo.

E-mail: ajibolas [at] afro.who.int (ajibolas[at]afro[dot]who[dot]int)

Tel:+ 47 241 39378; Fax: + 47 241 39513

Tel. in Harare: 091 231 405