Billboards, such as this one in Kenya, promote HIV prevention messages as part of a comprehensive prevention strategy. The billboard also exclaims, “Life will be great!!!” and “We can do it.” Photo credit: FHI/IMPACT

In 2005 AIDS claimed another 3 million lives, and it relentlessly threatens millions more. Despite global and national efforts to quell the pandemic, 40.3 million people are currently living with HIV—the highest level ever. Nearly 5 million new cases occur each year, with almost every region of the world reporting increasing numbers.

Yet amid the grim statistics there are some encouraging signs. Although far below the World Health Organization’s target goal of reaching 3 million people by 2005, about one million people in low- to middle-income countries are receiving antiretroviral therapy, which has prevented an estimated 250,000 to 300,000 deaths this year. Further, a few countries, including Kenya and Zimbabwe, were able to lower their HIV prevalence rates through a heavy investment in prevention programs.¹

Despite recent attention directed to issues surrounding treatment, it is critical to remember the role that prevention plays in the fight against AIDS. Over the past several months UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot has encouraged a refocus on prevention, stating that “reaching or sustaining universal HIV treatment will be impossible without effective HIV prevention”² and urging “a rapid increase in the scale and scope of prevention programmes.”³

Experts calculate that comprehensive efforts that focus on both prevention and treatment could avert more than half of the new HIV infections that would otherwise occur through the year 2020 in sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected globally by AIDS.⁴ This issue of Horizons Report highlights findings from operations research that examines prevention issues and strategies for key vulnerable populations. These findings have important program and policy implications for catalyzing a renewed commitment to HIV prevention in Africa and elsewhere.

References
¹UNAIDS/WHO. 2005. AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2005. Geneva: UNAIDS.

²Piot, Peter. 2005. “Special lecture: The status of the response: What will it take to turn the epidemic around?,” speech presented at the 3^rd IAS Conference on HIV Pathogenesis and Treatment, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 27 July.

³UNAIDS/WHO. 2005. “HIV infection rates decreasing in several countries but global number of people living with HIV continues to rise,” press release, 21 November. Geneva: UNAIDS and WHO.

⁴UNAIDS/WHO. 2005. AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2005. Geneva: UNAIDS.

© 2005 The Population Council, Inc.