UNAIDS and German Development Bank join forces to prevent spread of HIV

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the German Development Bank today signed an agreement to work jointly on encouraging the prevention of HIV infection in severely affected regions through educational campaigns and condom distribution, the UN agency said today.

The Bank has committed €13 million (euros) for Central American and Caribbean countries.

In Central America, the €7.6 million programme will start in El Salvador and Guatemala. In the Caribbean, the €6 million campaigns will begin in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guyana and, possibly, Cuba, UNAIDS said.

Those areas face HIV prevalence rates ranging from 0.01 per cent in Cuba to 5.6 per cent in Haiti, with cases concentrated in urban centres and among sex workers and homosexual men.

UNAIDS also welcomed a pledge Tuesday by the United Kingdom to spend 1.5 million pounds sterling over the next three years on programmes to combat the pandemic.