UNITED Nations (UN) Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka has called for long-term, sustainable programmes aimed at addressing factors which make women and girls more vulnerable to HIV infections.

Mrs Mataka said in Lusaka yesterday that there was need for men and women to be involved in the fight against the pandemic, which affected more females.

She said this in a statement in Lusaka yesterday ahead of the commemoration of World AIDS Day which falls today.

She said sub-Saharan Africa alone accounted for 1.4 million pregnant women living with HIV with only half of that receiving treatment to prevent mother-to-child infections.

Mrs Mataka said there were a further 61 per cent of people living with HIV on the continent and only 44 per cent of that was able to access anti-retroviral treatment.

"Reflecting on the World AIDS Day's theme of 2009, I was struck by how much more needs to be done in order to ensure that women and girls across sub-Saharan Africa can access comprehensive HIV prevention," Mrs Mataka said.

She said only 38 per cent of females aged 15 to 24 years could demonstrate accurate and sufficient knowledge on how to protect themselves from acquiring HIV against the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) target of 95 per cent by 2010.

She said given such a disproportionate gap in progress, intensified, strategic focus on women and girls would have a dramatic impact on reaching the universal access commitments.

"Beyond knowledge, however, there is an urgent need to ensure women's fundamental rights to health services are attained," she said.

Mrs Mataka said currently, programmes to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child only reached 33 per cent of those in need globally while the UNGASS target was 80 per cent by the year 2010.

She also quoted UNAIDS executive director, Michael Sedibe as saying "The world cannot accept that every year over 300,000 new-born children are infected with HIV through vertical transmission in Africa while vertical transmission from mother to child has been reduced to zero in Europe and North America."

Michael Sedibe urged that more effort should go into virtually eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV by 2015 and to make this a concrete outcome of the AIDS plus MDG initiative.

Mrs Mataka said women could not work alone in fighting HIV, therefore, it was vital to have the support of men and boys in developing positive and transformative masculinities which did not condone gender inequality and which supported women and girl's sexual and reproductive rights.

She said there was need to implement long-term sustainable programmes that addressed why women and girls were more vulnerable to infection, based on quality evidence and grounded in human rights principles which empowered men, women and girls to claim their rights and for governments to protect these rights in the context of response to HIV.

She challenged the public to re-affirm its commitment in supporting women and girls across the continent in living lives of dignity.