HIV/AIDS will remain for the foreseeable future an unprecedented economic, social, and human challenge to Sub-Saharan Africa, said a World Bank report launched Wednesday.
The report also urged African countries to continue to champion HIV prevention efforts to slow and reverse the rate of new HIV infections.
The report said as every infected African starts antiretroviral therapy (ART), another four to six become newly infected, even as regional figures show falling prevalence in countries such as Kenya, and parts of Botswana, Cote d'Ivoire, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
About 22.5 million Africans are HIV positive, and AIDS is the leading cause of premature death on the continent, especially among productive young people and women.
The World Bank has mobilized more than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars to more than 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to combat the epidemic since 2000.
The Bank also said it is transforming its initial "emergency response" role as the world's principal financier of HIV/AIDS programs to a new mission with four new strategic objectives.
The objectives are, at the global level, advising countries on how best to manage the complexity of the international financing they receive; and at the local level, helping countries to accelerate implementation and take a long-term sustainable development response to HIV/AIDS; strengthening the monitoring an devaluation capacity of countries to track the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of their HIV/AIDS response; and building up stronger health and fiduciary systems.
Source: Xinhua
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