GENEVA, 18 March 2009 – UNAIDS’ number one priority is universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
With more than 7400 new HIV infections each day the world can not stop the AIDS epidemic without stopping new HIV infections. Countries must know their epidemic and tailor their response to it. UNAIDS advocates for and supports comprehensive approaches to HIV prevention through combination strategies.
Condoms are an essential part of combination prevention which includes among other elements: access to information about HIV, access to treatment, harm reduction measures, waiting longer to become sexually active, being faithful, reducing multiple partners and concurrent relationships, male circumcision, ensuring human rights and the reduction of stigma.
Countries need to use all available strategies and methods that are informed by evidence and grounded in human rights. As was reported in the most recent edition of the UNAIDS’ Report on the global AIDS epidemic, substantial increases in HIV prevention and treatment efforts are producing results in several countries.
In some of the countries most affected by HIV, condom use is increasing for young people with multiple partners. These countries include Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Haiti, Kenya Malawi, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania and Zambia.
An HIV prevention approach based solely on one element does not work and can hinder the AIDS response. There is no single magic bullet for HIV prevention. Countries need to use a mix of behavioural, biomedical and structural HIV prevention actions and tactics to suit their actual epidemic and the needs of those most at risk, just as the right combination and proportions of drugs for antiretroviral treatment is now saving millions of lives.
UNAIDS works with partners governments and civil society including networks of people living with HIV, the private sector, faith based groups and others in helping countries achieve universal access to comprehensive HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
