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Acceleration on AIDS prevention and treatment urged

The UN has urged African nations to push forward on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment campaigns in order to curb the spread of the HI virus.

Although Africa has the world's largest number of HIV-positive people, it was also crucial that the continent's majority of uninfected received attention, Richard Delate, UNAIDS adviser for eastern and southern Africa said on Tuesday.

"Those that have not been infected ... should be kept that way. There should be an accelerated campaign of prevention; of asking people to stop risky sexual behaviour; to use condoms; to do everything that will limit the possibility of infection," Delate told Reuters.

UNAIDS estimates that the disease claimed the lives of at least 2.3 million sub-Saharan Africans during 2004, but just one in 10 sub-Saharan Africans has access to voluntary HIV testing, and condom availability is limited to the equivalent of just three for each man per year.


This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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