Facing facts means prioritising prevention

Great advances have been made in reaching more Africans with life-prolonging antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, but prevention efforts are lagging, according to speakers at the opening of the 15th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) taking place in Dakar, Senegal, this week.



Peter Piot, the outgoing UNAIDS executive director, called for the same energy and commitment devoted to the scale-up of ARV treatment in Africa to be put into prevention.



"We need more of the same; it's not very sexy, but there you are," he told delegates at the five-day conference. "We need to put as much into HIV prevention as we have into treatment."



A report released by UNAIDS ahead of World AIDS Day on 1 December noted that for every two people who started ARV treatment, another five were newly infected.



"Future conferences should be devoted to prevention," said Abdoulaye Wade, Senegal's president.



Speakers also highlighted the barriers to accessing treatment and prevention services experienced by marginalised groups like sex workers and sexual minorities, such as gays, lesbians and transsexuals.



"Discrimination of our brothers and sisters because they are different is unacceptable," said a Rwandan delegate who has been living with HIV for over 20 years.



More than 5,000 delegates, including people living with HIV, youth, scientists, leaders and civil society, have come together in Dakar to discuss progress in curbing the HIV epidemic on the continent.



The theme of the 2008 conference is "Africa's response: Face the facts". Despite some advances, sub-Saharan Africa is still the region most affected by AIDS, accounting for two-thirds of all people living with HIV globally, and three-quarters of AIDS deaths, according to UNAIDS.



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