UN's senior AIDS official says disease's spread is outstripping Africa's containment efforts
Despite a decline in some countries, the overall spread of HIV in Africa was greater this year than ever before, the
head of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said today, calling for urgent and sustained action to
help the continent prevent and treat the disease.
“The reality is that in sub-Saharan Africa over 3 million people were newly infected with HIV in 2005 – that's 64 per
cent of all new infections globally and more than in any previous year for the region. Young people are making up half
of these new infections,” said Dr. Peter Piot in Abuja, Nigeria, at the opening of the 14th International Conference on
AIDS and STIs (sexually transmitted infections) in Africa.
“AIDS continues to outstrip Africa's efforts to contain it and continues to pose an acute threat to future generations,”
he added.
The conference, running from 4 to 9 December, will start with a two-day Leadership Forum hosted by President Olusegun
Obasanjo of Nigeria, in which senior officials from will discuss the challenges and opportunities of expanding effective
responses to the pandemic.
The Conference was founded in 1986 by African scientists belonging to the Society for AIDS in Africa.