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US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the weekend called for a change in risky sexual behaviour to stop the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa.
Visiting Kenya's capital, Nairobi, for a signing ceremony ending north-south fighting in Sudan, Powell also addressed an AIDS round-table discussion on risky sex, condom resistance and the cultural expectation that young girls will have sex with much older men.
The Associated Press quoted Powell as saying: "Those sorts of patterns of behaviour have to change to protect young people. Africa, I think, for too long a period of time ignored the problem, looked the other way and said 'no, this isn't happening here'."
An estimated seven percent of Kenya's adults are living with HIV/AIDS, a rate much higher than western nations but lower than some countries in southern Africa where 20 percent or more of the population is infected.
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