Despite decades of endeavor to curb its spread, AIDS continues to prey upon millions of Africans every year, devastating the continent's economy and almost every social fabric.

African Union (AU), the continent's 53-member bloc, on Tuesday urged its member states to step up the pace of HIV prevention by telling their people some basics about the disease, such as "how it is caused," though these should have been widely known to help people avoid the deadly disease.

The epidemic of HIV/AIDS was still increasing and continued to burden Africa, with some 3 million new infections in sub-Saharan Africa last year, Mark Stirling, director of UNAIDS' regional support team for Southern and Eastern Africa, said in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

He joined South African Health Minister Manto Tshabalala- Msimang, and health officials and AIDS activists in southern Africa to launch an African initiative aiming to accelerate prevention work in the region.

UNAIDS, the United Nations' organ to lead global anti-AIDS campaign, has warned that the number of new infections occurring in Africa must be dramatically reduced in the next few years before African countries exhaust their resources to provide treatment and care.

Of the 5 million new infections recorded globally in 2005, 3.2 million were in sub-Saharan Africa, the most affected region in the world. Persistent spread of the virus has brought life expectancy in countries like Zambia straight down to 32 years, and has orphaned 12 million children.

"We must promote widespread awareness of HIV and how it is caused," Luis Sambo, the World Health Organization's (WHO's) regional director for Africa, said through a press release seen here.

He asked Africans to embrace HIV counseling and testing, media to promote awareness, and government to ensure wide availability of HIV prevention services, together with antiretroviral (ARV) therapy.

In contrast to alarmingly high figures of infection and death, a large number of Africans, especially young people, still tend to deny the risk of being infected during unsafe behaviors such as unprotected sex.

Despite the fact that South Africa has the largest number of infected people in the world, 66 percent of South African respondents to a 2005 survey believed that they were unlikely to become infected, according to UNAIDS.

Gender inequalities in Africa prevent girls from refusing high- risk sex, and cultural factors including early sexual activity, early marriage, and multiple sex partners also need to be addressed, UNAIDS found.

Women and children currently represent 60 percent of those infected with HIV in Africa and nearly half of all new infections occur among children and youth between the ages of 15 and 24.

Prevention should be a central element in responding to HIV/ AIDS, but it has become "a forgotten child," said Tshabalala- Msimang.

Tshabalala-Msimang, controversial for her skeptical attitude towards ARV and reluctance in implementing treatment program in South Africa, accused the focus on providing ARV treatment of compromising the effort of prevention.

WHO's Three by Five initiative, which aims to provide ARV treatment to 3 million people by the year 2005, was one of international initiatives which were made "despite the challenges in the capacity of health systems in Africa to safely administer and monitor this type of therapy," she said.

"The unfortunate consequence of this engagement on treatment locally and internationally has been the downgrading of prevention as a central element in responding to this health condition," she said.

But on Tuesday she was reluctant to directly comment on a recent statement by the country's former deputy president Jacob Zuma, who is on a rape trial, that he took a shower after an unprotected sex with his accuser to "minimize the risk of contracting HIV."

The statement by Zuma, once chairman of South Africa's National AIDS Council, has reportedly caused a "severe setback" to the country's prevention efforts.

The National AIDS Helpline was inundated with calls querying the validity of taking a shower to prevent HIV infection in recent days. "It has caused a huge problem. People seem to be very confused now," counseling manager Hope Mhlongo told local newspaper The Star.

Tshabalala-Msimang said the South African government has not conceded its policy of "ABC" in HIV/AIDS prevention, which stands for abstinence, being loyal to spouse and using condom during sex.

She also accused local media's pursue to "sensationalism" of sending mixed and misleading messages to the public.

African leaders will meet in Abuja, Nigeria, next month to review the progress made in meeting the goals they set five years ago to respond regional challenges of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

They will discuss how to make universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment a reality, Tshabalala-Msimang said.

Source: Xinhua