The United Nations is pressing African countries to accelerate a campaign of prevention and treatment to curb the spread of AIDS, which is draining the resources of the world’s poorest continent.

AIDS killed at least 2.3 million sub-Saharan Africans last year compared with 2.1 million in 2002 while new infections jumped to 3.1 million people from 2.9 million in the same period, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

UNAIDS, the U.N.‘s lead agency on HIV/AIDS, said whereas Africa was worst affected by the disease, it was crucial to focus on the people that were still not infected.

“Those that have not been infected, and they are by far the majority, should be kept that way,” said Richard Delate, a UNAIDS adviser for eastern and southern Africa.

“There should be an accelerated campaign of prevention, of asking people to stop risky sexual behaviour, to use condoms, to do everything that will limit the possibility of infection,” he told Reuters.

Around 25.4 million people live with HIV in Africa but just 3 percent of them have access to life-prolonging anti-retroviral (ARVs) drugs, Delate said.

An increasing number of African governments have made access to cheaper ARVs a key plank of their anti-AIDS campaign.

Mozambique and Zambia are exploring building factories for that purpose while drugs companies are licensing the manufacture in Africa of generic drugs, analysts say.

FIGHTING STIGMA

Fighting stigma - which prevents people from declaring their HIV status for fear of being ostracised from their communities - would also help in combating AIDS, Delate said.

Former South African President Nelson Mandela joined a growing rank of African leaders fighting stigma when he publicly announced this month that his son Makgatho had died from AIDS.

Another former African head of state, Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda, has also said his son Masuzgo was killed by the disease in 1986.

In some countries inadequate resources and a failure of political will and leadership have hindered the fight against AIDS and health analysts say governments need coherent policies to address the disease.

Thanks to some $6 billion in cash from international donors money was no longer the biggest problem and experts should now focus on making decent healthcare more accessible and on ensuring those not infected remain that way, Delate said.

Just one in 10 sub-Saharan Africans have access to voluntary HIV tests while condom access is equivalent to just three for each man per year, he said.

In Southern Africa between 12 and 30 percent of teachers were living with HIV or AIDS and the disease was a major cause of absenteeism at work places. In Malawi, 90 percent vacancy for physicians and 60 percent for nurses in the state health system was blamed on HIV/AIDS as well as brain drain, Delate said.