Even low HIV rate countries in need of attention

As the UN launched its annual report on global AIDS statistics on Monday, activists warned that West African countries with low HIV/AIDS rates could not afford to be complacent. "We must not wait for the AIDS pandemic to shoot up before we react," said Baba Goumbala, executive secretary of the country’s National Alliance Against AIDS (ANCS), a group of Senegalese NGOs and community-based associations. "There seems to be a relaxation of prevention in countries where good results have been achieved," he said as the United Nations joint programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and WHO presented their AIDS Epidemic Update 2005. The latest figures showed a worldwide increase of people living with HIV, up to 40.3 million. Sub-Saharan Africa remained the region hardest-hit by the epidemic, with a total of 25.8 million infected with the virus. But while parts of southern Africa had prevalence rates of 30 to 40 percent, with 35 to 37 percent among pregnant women in Botswana, the highest rate in West Africa was seven percent, in war-divided Cote d'Ivoire. However, countries with low HIV rates such as Senegal and Mali - both under two percent - have not seen a decrease in the pandemic, according to the UNAIDS update. And a demographic study published in Senegal only last July showed two regions in the interior of the country, Ziguinchor and Kolda, climbing over two percent. "Before the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria implemented its programme, low prevalence countries were ruled out," said Ibra Ndoye, executive director of the National Council for the Battle Against AIDS (CNLS) in Senegal. "We had to wage a fierce fight in 2001 to have those counties included in the (3 by 5) initiative," he added. Three million people in developing countries on treatment by the end of 2005 is the global initiative of the World Health Organization and UNAIDS. However, the epidemic will only worsen if prevention is neglected by international donors and local governments, Ndoye said. "In 1986, Cote d'Ivoire had a prevalence rate of one percent," he said. "If we want sustainable programmes in West African countries where prevalence rates are quite low, we need the help of international donors, but also that of governments themselves." The epidemic update 2005 shows that around 3.2 million newly-infected adults and children are in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase of 200,000 people since 2003. And this year again, 2.4 million people are expected to die of an AIDS-related disease. Across West Africa, Burkina Faso is the only country to show an apparent decline in infection rates among pregnant women living in urban areas, down to 2.3 percent in 2004 from 4.2 percent in 2001. Goumbala of the ANCS said prevention has been neglected over the past two years as the emphasis instead was placed on access to life prolonging drugs known as ARVs. "We need to walk on both feet, but not one instead of the other", Goumbala said. "We need both prevention and care to efficiently fight the AIDS pandemic." The full UNAIDS/WHO AIDS Epidemic Update 2005 can be accessed at UNAIDS