HIV/AIDS experts meeting here have called for increased promotion of HIV/AIDS prevention methods in order to stop complacency about the pandemic.
The experts, who were speaking at the opening of a five-day global HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting on Tuesday, said though countries have started recording lower rates of HIV infections, most AIDS responses pay little attention to prevention.
"While 87 percent of countries in the world have established clear and ambitious goals for HIV treatment, only about 50 percent have targets for HIV prevention therapy," said Peter Piot, executive director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS(UNAIDS).
He said that there is need to work harder on HIV/AIDS prevention and to ensure there is no complacency.
"There is no room for complacency, AIDS is not done, the epidemic is not under control. For every two persons who are put on treatment, five are infected," he said.
Mark Dybul, coordinator of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, said countries should take HIV prevention as serious at HIV/AIDS treatment.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who opened the conference, attributed the complacency to the provision of antiretroviral treatment, which people see as a cure for AIDS.
He said that HIV/AIDS messages should be repackaged saying that a person on antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) is not as normal as the one who does not have the virus.
"I don't want that false security that ARVs are equal to a normal life," he said.
Kihumuro Apuuli, director of Uganda AIDS Commission, told reporters on Monday that many Ugandans especially adults above 30 years old are engaging in risky sexual behavior with a perception that the ARVs will heal them in case they get infected.
He attributed the risky sexual behavior to lack of specific programs targeting adults while most of the HIV/AIDS prevention programs have been targeting youths below the age of 25.
According to the 2007 UNAIDS and World Health Organization report, more that 33 million people around the world are living with HIV. Of these, about 2.5 million people were infected in 2007.
The report estimates that more than 6,800 people become infected with HIV every day, and more than 5,700 die from AIDS daily mostly because of inadequate access to HIV prevention and treatment services.
Source: Xinhua
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