COMBINED MOVES URGED TO COMBAT AIDS EPIDEMIC

WHILE the world awaits findings from new AIDS prevention trials,
millions of people are becoming infected because governments are
overlooking studies showing that behaviour modification works, AIDS
experts have warned.

Measures cited by the experts included promoting safer sex through
delayed intercourse and the use of condoms, decreasing drug abuse,
providing access to needle exchange programs and promoting male
circumcision.

But none of these alone offers a simple solution to preventing
infection with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, the experts have said
at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.

The experts said characteristics of the global epidemic varied greatly
among and within countries, most of which are not focusing prevention
resources where their epidemics are concentrated. Combining these
measures and delivering them on a wider scale were crucial to
reversing the global HIV epidemic, they said.

Health workers have had initial successes in providing antiretroviral
drugs to treat an estimated 3 million people worldwide. But tens of
millions more people need the drugs, and still millions more are now
becoming infected.

The world cannot treat its way out of the AIDS epidemic, many experts
have long said, and a scientific debate exists over the extent to
which antiretroviral therapy can reduce transmission of the virus. A
pressing need exists to combine HIV prevention and treatment efforts,
experts said on Tuesday.

Researchers in each field "need to get married today", said Dr Myron
Cohen of the University of North Carolina. "We need to be one community."

A 50-member panel known as the Global HIV Prevention Working Group,
which is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, released a
report saying that prevention efforts must address perception problems.

One is misplaced pessimism about the effectiveness of HIV prevention
strategies. A second is confusing the difficulty in changing human
behaviour with an inability to do so. A third is a misconception that
because it is inherently difficult to measure prevention success,
those efforts have no impact, the report said.

Leading African figures led by former Botswanan president Festus Mogae
have launched an initiative to lobby African governments to do more.
Gathering former heads of state, top experts on AIDS and gender health
as well as Ethiopian super-model Liya Kebede, the "Champions for an
HIV-free Generation" are pledging to nail HIV prevention to the
political mast.

"Thanks to the unprecedented effort of the global community, millions
are now receiving life-saving AIDS treatment," Mr Mogae said at the
conference. "But for every two people we treat in Africa this year,
five more are infected. We urgently need innovation and invigoration
of HIV prevention in Africa."