Algeria : December 1st, World AIDS Day

Further information (pdf) 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic : Summary – By chapters Press Release  Global summary of AIDS epidemic(ppt) MENA facts sheet Progress in countries Preventing HIV/AIDS in MENA – World Bank  Websites World Bank HIV/AIDS UNAIDS World AIDS Campaign UNAIDS Slideshow on "fighting AIDS" XVI internatioal AIDS conference  (Toronto, August 2006) Quizz on AIDS Articles AIDS Treatment is a Lifetime Commitment—But Who Will Pay? AIDS in MENA Preventing major surge in HIV/AIDS still in reach for MENA

December 2006 - The theme for World AIDS Day 2006 is accountability. It was developed by the World AIDS Campaign support team based on their ongoing work around World AIDS Day which slogan is STOP AIDS. Keep the promise.

In Algeria there were some 19,000 people living with HIV in 2005. Sex work and injecting drug use represent significant risk factors in the country’s epidemic. With one study showing that around 41% of injecting drug users shared injecting equipment and that 9% of female sex workers in Tamanrasset tested positive for HIV in 2004. Algeria’s epidemic has expanded into the wider population with HIV among women in antenatal care in parts of the south exceeding 1%.

Algeria has finalized its cross-sectoral National Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS (2003-06), in collaboration with different ministries, NGOs and international partners. Extensive multisectoral operational plans in nine sectors have been planned.

The government received $8.8 million in grants from the third round of applications to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB & Malaria (GFATM) to implement its multisectoral Action Plan to fight HIV/AIDS, with the participation of communities and the civil society.

Algeria profile - UNAIDS (pdf)

In 2005, there were an estimated 440,000 people living with HIV in the Middle East and North Africa. Around 64,000 people were newly infected with HIV and AIDS killed around 37,000 adults and children in 2005. Only 5% of the estimated 75,000 people needing antiretroviral therapy in the Middle East and North Africa were receiving it by the end of 2005.

National adult HIV prevalence did not exceed 0.1% in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (except for in Sudan). However, available data show that the epidemics are growing in several countries including Algeria, Islamic Republic of Iran, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, and Morocco.

Preventing major surge in HIV/AIDS still in reach for the Middle East dnd North Africa. The World Bank launched in November, 2005 a regional strategy to help countries in MENA region prevent a major surge in the HIV/AIDS infections in the region. The new strategy - Preventing HIV/AIDS in the Middle East and North Africa: A window of Opportunity to Act - will help countries fight HIV/AIDS more effectively