Anti-Retroviral Treatment recipients triple

Accra, May 8, GNA - The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on Monday said the number of people on the antiretroviral treatment (ART) in low-and middle income countries had tripled to 1.3 million in December 2005 from 400,000 in December 2003.

In a release received in Accra on Monday, the WHO and UNAIDS said while progress in treatment scale-up substantially, it was less than initially expected.

However, treatment access expanded in every region of the world during the '3 by 5' initiative, with approximately 50,000 additional people beginning ART every month in the past year, the release said, quoting a recent report.

The "3 by 5" Initiative is to provide HIV/AIDS treatment to three million people by 2005.

The statement said sub-Saharan Africa, the region most severely impacted, led the scale-up effort, with the number of people receiving HIV treatment increasing by more than eight-fold to 810,000 from 100,000 in the two-year period.

"By the end of 2005, more than half of all people receiving HIV treatment in low- and middle-income countries resided in sub-Saharan Africa, up from one-quarter two years earlier."

According to the release, Dr Lee Jong-wook, WHO Director-General noted that political support and resources for the rapid scale-up of HIV treatment also increased more than they were two years ago. "Today '3 by 5' has helped to mobilize political and financial commitment to achieving much broader access to treatment.

"This fundamental change in expectations is transforming our hopes of tackling not just HIV/AIDS, but other diseases as well," the release quoted Dr Jong-wook as saying.