The alarming trend in HIV incidence in African Region calls for urgent measures to further control the progress of the epidemic,” says the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, Dr Luis Sambo, in a report to the fifty-sixth session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa.WHO and UNAIDS estimate that nearly two thirds of the world’s HIV positive population live in the sub-Saharan Africa. In 2005 alone, out of 4.9 million new infections worldwide, 3.2 million occurred in the African region, the majority of those affected aged between 15 and 49. During the same period, 2.4 million adults and children died and more than 12 million children were orphaned due to AIDS.
