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Conference on African HIV/AIDS Opens in Nigeria

Posted on: Monday, 5 December 2005, 09:01 CST

Conference on African HIV/AIDS opens in Nigeria

ABUJA, Dec. 4 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of health experts on Sunday launched a six-day international conference on African HIV/AIDS in Nigeria's capital Abuja to discuss ways of fighting the deadly disease on the world's poorest continent.

After African folk dances in the city's Eagle Square, Femi Soyinka, president of the International Conference on HIV/AIDS and Sexually-Transmitted Infections in Africa (ICASA) declared the meeting open.

The meeting "is about Africa, is about the future of Africa," Soyinka said. "AIDS is a family disease. We have to respond firmly. "

He said the fourteenth edition of the ICASA, which held every two year, will provide delegates a platform to showcase their initiatives and drive in the anti-AIDS campaign and safe health.

Earlier, at a press conference in Abuja to herald to the opening of the meeting, United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Executive Director Peter Piot said that its priority now is to ensure that the money and resources available for AIDS reach those who need them most.

"Urgent and sustained action is needed at all levels to increase access to HIV prevention and treatment services in Africa, '' Piot said.

The director said that even with some progress recorded in the campaign against the pandemic, it required both political and financial commitments to contain and sustain the efforts.

Africa has just over 10 percent of the world's population but is home to more than 60 percent of the people living with the AIDS virus.

According to a recent UNAIDS report, about 25.8 million Africans are living with HIV, almost one million more than in 2003. An estimated 2.4 million people died of HIV-related illness on the continent in 2005, while a further 3.2 million became infected with HIV.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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