The Gambian leader, His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yayha Jammeh, has disclosed that over 98% of the country's population is HIV negative.

He described this as a source of motivation for our collective actions and also noted that it is a real challenge to ensure that this majority remains HIV free. These remarks of the president were contained in a statement read on his behalf by the minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Abubakar Gaye on the observance of the World AIDS Day at the Tallinding Buffer Zone in Serrekunda East, yesterday.

He implored all and sundry to ensure that we demonstrate our proactive roles to collectively reverse the HIV/AIDS pandemic in our beloved Gambia. He added that the government of The Gambia is acting on her promise at the 2006 United Nations High Level Meeting on AIDS, to scale up towards Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support by 2010. He went on to reveal that as of 2009, the government established nine ART sites for access to antiretroviral treatment across the country and services sites to provide and prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV, as well as 34 sites for providing voluntary counseling and testing in The Gambia (public and private).

World AIDS Day, he reminded the gathering, is a day that was created by the UN system and the world at large to focus on global awareness of the pandemic and generate positive action to stop the spread of HIV and eradicate AIDS. "According to UNAIDS estimates, there are now 33.2 million people living with HIV, including 2.5 million children," he revealed.

He further revealed that during 2007 some 2.7 million people became newly infected with the virus, adding that around half of all those who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35. A vast majority of people with HIV and AIDS live in lower and middle-income countries. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents," he said.

The Gambian leader also mentioned the fact that twenty-eight years into the epidemic today, AIDS continues to challenge all of our efforts as for every two people who start taking antiretroviral drugs, another five become newly infected. Unless we take urgent steps to intensify HIV prevention we will fail to sustain the gains of the past few years, and universal access will simply be a noble aspiration, he remarked. According to him, HIV/AIDS is a supremely complex issue that demands concerted efforts from all sectors of society. He concluded that in sub-Saharan Africa alone, the epidemic has orphaned nearly 12 million children aged less than 18 years.

For his part, Yankuba Colley, mayor of Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC) said: As we celebrate the 2009 World AIDS Day with the theme 'Universal access and human rights', it is incumbent upon us all to continue working towards achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, care and support and recognising these as fundamental human rights. According to him, the government of The Gambia under the leadership of the president, Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh has registered valuable progress in increasing access to HIV/AIDS services.

However, greater commitment is still needed amongst us if the goal of universal access is to be achieved in our leadership role as individuals, families and communities and as well take stock of our responsibilities during the year and set our foresight in the year ahead in the fight, he added. For his part, Dr Luis Sambo, WHO Regional director, said that with about 10% of the world's population, the WHO African Region remains home to two-thirds of the global number of people living with HIV/AIDS. The 2.7 million new HIV infections that occurred worldwide in 2007, he noted, 1.9 million were in Africa. This situation, he said calls for a renewal of our commitment in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The last two years have seen unprecedented progress in the expansion of health sector interventions for HIV prevention, treatment and care. In one year, the total number of health facilities providing HIV testing and counselling services increased by 50% and innovative strategies enabled these services reach more than 17 million people aged 15 and above, he revealed.

In spite of these encouraging trends, he said, a lot more needs to be done, adding that comprehensive knowledge of HIV/AIDS is still limited. We need to intensify HIV prevention alongside treatment and care. We need to reach every district with a package of interventions that are known to be cost-effective. These include promoting healthier lifestyles and behaviours, routine offer of HIV testing and counselling; screening for HIV in all pregnant women and administration of ARVs to eligible women to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV; offer safe male circumcision services in districts with high HIV prevalence and implement strategies for the control of TB/ HIV co-infection, he concluded.