Objectif 6 : Combattre le VIH/SIDA, le paludisme et les autres maladies

Most African Countries Falling Behind on Funding Fight Against HIV/Aids and Other Diseases

The declared commitment of countries to tackle HIV, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases remains very strong, but most countries have not yet met the pledge to allocate at least 15% of their annual budgets to the health sector.

Additional resources continue to be made available with the help of development partners, but the key factors are economic growth, education, peace and security.

The decrease in HIV prevalence and mortality rates reported in 2007 persists and the HIV/AIDS-related mortality rate has not increased since the last report, but appears to have stabilized.  Cumulatively, the number of adults and children newly infected with HIV fell by 17.4% between 2001 and 2008, due to strong prevention programs, increased access to treatment and behaviour change.

Even so, the number of people living with HIV remains high: increased access to treatment has cut mortality and increased the number of people living with AIDS.

On HIV prevalence among the population aged 15-24, it has fallen and so has the mortality rate.  Prevalence among this age group in Sub-Saharan Africa fell to around five per cent in 2008, continuing a decline since 2005.

One indicator to measure the problem is condom use for the last high-risk sexual encounter.  Only 15 African countries reported on this indicator, and the figures were 42% of women and 52% of men used a condom in the last high-risk encounter.

Comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS and HIV prevention is improving among young people aged 15-24 years.

On access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for those who need it, at the end of 2008, three million Africans were estimated to be receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART), or 44% of the estimated total need.  Five years before, the figure was 2%.  The target for 2010 is universal or 100% access.

Malaria continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Africa. In 2006, there 247 million malaria episodes worldwide, leading to 880,000 deaths and 91% of these deaths were in Africa.  Poverty and poor access to health facilities are major causes of deaths from malaria, together with political instability which makes it hard to reach groups in urgent need of medical help.

On tuberculosis, mortality rates fell over the period 2005 to 2007 in Central, East and Southern Africa and remained level in North and West Africa, and prevalence demonstrated a similar pattern.  However, prevalence has been rising since 1990 is some countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Togo and Sierra Leone.  It declined steadily in Nigeria from 2003 to 2007.

However, Africa as a region is unlikely to meet the TB targets by 2015, largely due to the still high prevalence of HIV and rising AIDS-related morality in some countries.