UNAIDS Officials Say Progress Being Made Against HIV/AIDS in Africa, Asia

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Thursday, Sheila Tlou, UNAIDS director of the regional support team for Eastern and Southern Africa, said the region is making progress in scaling up access to prevention and treatment services, including behavior change and prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) programs, the U.N. News Centre reports. "'We have to now focus on making sure that we scale up voluntary medical male circumcision, behavior change, and all those [interventions] to make sure that we reduce infections,' she said,"adding that improving access to treatment also is critical, according to the news service (1/19). "'There has been quite a lot of progress since 1997 with a 25 percent reduction in new infections in our region,' said Tlou," Agence France-Presse notes (1/19).

Also speaking at the briefing, Steve Kraus, the director of the UNAIDS regional support team for the Asia and Pacific region, said that region has witnessed a 20 percent reduction in HIV incidence over the past 10 years and access to treatment has more than doubled, the U.N. News Centre writes (1/19).