Zambia joined the rest of African countries Tuesday in launching an HIV/AIDS prevention program aimed at fighting the disease on early basis.

Health Minister Sylvia Masebo launched the program and declared 2006 as the "Year for Acceleration of HIV Prevention."

Masebo said in the past few years, Zambia has made tremendous progress in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic which was decimating the country's 11 million people.

By the end of 2005, more than 50,000 Zambians living with HIV/ AIDS have been put under free Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), an achievement which won wide acclamation from international institutions.

The minister said while the government had been striving to curb the scourge, prevention measures should be put at the first place so as to scale down the new infections.

It is estimated that every year more than three million new infections occur in the African region and half of the newly infected individuals are young people aged 15 to 24 years old.

"This calls for special measures and emergency actions to stop the spread of HIV infection on the continent," Masebo said.

WHO country representative Stella Anyangwe pointed out that prevention, which was once the cornerstone of the HIV epidemic, has been neglected for long and needs to be placed back on the national and international agenda.

She said the launch of the program is the result of a resolution by 46 African health ministers in August 2005 to declare 2006 as the year for HIV prevention acceleration.

The main launch took place on the same day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where several dignities including African Union Chairperson Alpha Oumar Konare were in attendance while simultaneous launches were organized in Dakar, Johannesburg and Khartoum with satellite links to the main launch.

Source: Xinhua