Welcome to the third Information Update—the regular newsletter of the African Broadcast Media Partnership Against HIV/AIDS. Launched in Johannesburg in October 2005, the Partnership aims to reinvigorate the commitment, content and impact of broadcast media in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa. A Steering Committee, representing the signatory companies has met twice in the past four months.

You can view the minutes of the 21st February, 2006 Steering Committee Meeting here.

You can also view the October 2005, Old Fort Declaration establishing the Partnership translations in French and Portuguese.

African Union Launches Major New HIV Prevention Drive

The African Union and the United Nations on Tuesday 11th April, 2006, jointly launched the “Acceleration of Prevention of HIV Initiative”. The initiative is an attempt to step up the pace of HIV prevention in Africa. This is a follow up to the 2005 Declaration by the African Ministers of Health declaring 2006 the “Year for Acceleration of HIV Prevention”, and a special call on Member States to intensify HIV prevention efforts.

View Communiqué and speech by WHO Regional Director

The initiative aims to create greater awareness of the gravity of the HIV epidemic in the African region and to “entrench” the subject of HIV/AIDS prevention on the agenda of the African media, governments, development partners, other stakeholders, and the global HIV prevention and control community in general.

“Africa must now seize the moment to stop HIV,” says AU Commission Chairperson, Prof. Alpha Konare. “There are several proven interventions in the area of prevention; we have a secure and growing knowledge base to do the job; and there is unprecedented political commitment and increased funding to translate plans and programmes into services”, he said.

The AU Commission and the UN agencies agree that acceleration of HIV prevention deserves more serious attention in line with the goal of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment and care by 2010.

Various Related News Stories

• African Union, U.N. Launch Initiative To Prevent New HIV Cases in Africa
• AU, UN agencies launch HIV prevention acceleration in Africa
• Africa renews commitment to HIV/AIDS fight
• AU launches fresh education drive to halt spread of HIV
• Ethiopia: Meles underlines need to accelerate activities aimed at preventing HIV/AIDS in Africa
• Two million die of AIDS in sub - Saharan Africa
• Launch Of 2006 As “Year Of Acceleration Of Hiv Prevention In The African Region”

AIDS is Africa’s Greatest Challenge

According to UNAIDS, HIV and AIDS pose the greatest threat to security and development in Africa. Since the epidemic broke out in the 1980s, 50 million people in Africa have been infected, and 22 million have died; infant mortality, which had fallen by 50% between 1960 and 1990, is on the rise again. Life expectancy in some countries in the region has plummeted to 32 years; overall GDP in one country in the region has dropped to 1%, and agricultural production in another is projected to drop to 24 % by 2010. Africa currently has about 12 million AIDS orphans, and this could rise to 19 million by 2010. An estimated 3.2 million or 64% of the five million new infections globally occur in Africa, with women and children accounting for nearly half of these.

AIDS Prevention in the 21st Century

The link below will connect you to a comprehensive analysis of data on HIV awareness and knowledge from Demographic and Household Surveys for many countries around the world. View analysis here