The Eastern and Southern Africa regions, mostly affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemics have scaled up efforts against HIV/AIDS prevalence.
“Of the estimated 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS across the world, almost three quarters live in Eastern and Southern Africa,” Sheila Tlou, the Director of the Regional Support Team for the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), said in a report on Thursday.
Tlou added that the focus was on behavioral change and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
?“We have to now focus on making sure that we scale up voluntary medical male circumcision, behavior change, and all those (interventions) to make sure that we reduce infections,” the report quoted her as saying.
She said that in South Africa, where an estimated 5.6 million people were infected, the government had scaled up prevention measures and was politically committed to turning the tide against the epidemic, including reducing mother-to-child transmission (MTCT).
“A lot has been in countries in Eastern and Southern Africa on mother-to-child infections.
“Our services to prevent mother-to-child transmission are more than 77 per cent, that region is leading in terms of scaling up of services.”?
Tlou, however, stressed that for a country to succeed in reducing transmission of the virus to newly-born infants, MTCT coverage should be at least 90 per cent.
“And we know it can be done in Botswana, we brought down mother-to-child infections from 40 per cent to four per cent in less than four years.”
According to her, the majority of the estimated 15 million HIV-infected people eligible for anti-retroviral treatment also reside in Eastern and Southern Africa, and it is crucial that access to treatment be scaled up.
The report stated that some 4.2 million people were already receiving treatment, while 3.4 million others needed to be put on anti-retroviral drugs.
It stated that Pacific region had seen a 20 per cent reduction in new infections over the past 10 years and access to treatment had more than doubled as well, according to Steve Kraus, the Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for the region.?