Assembly/AU/4(XI) Page 9 The African countries of Eastern Mediterranean (except Sudan, Djibouti and parts of Somalia) continued to estimate low HIV prevalence in the general population although three countries confirmed concentrated epidemics among injecting drug users. Several countries made progress in assessing and mapping risk and vulnerability. The momentum for scaling up antiretroviral treatment (ART) created through the 3 by 5 Initiative was followed by a global commitment to bring the world as close as possible to ensuring universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010. Funding for HIV programmes increased, bearing fruit in terms of progress in technical capacity-building in HIV interventions and HIV service provision. The vast majority of PLWH do not know their HIV status and do not come forward for HIV testing, counseling and treatment, resulting in the lowest coverage of estimated numbers of PLWH in need of treatment world-wide (below 5%). The coverage of known PLWH in need of ART reached approximately 80%. Member States are commended for the giant steps taken towards Universal Access for HIV prevention, care, and treatment. The documented achievements include: increased access to ART, PMTCT and HTC as well as care and support. In some African countries, the numbers of reported HIV cases remain small, although they are slowly increasing, partially due to expanding testing efforts. However, efforts towards prevention, treatment and support should be in place to stabilize and reverse the situation, or reduce prevalence and incidence rates further where applicable. International Development Partners, private sector, CSOs, NGOs, are commended for their untiring efforts and supports to Africa in its fight against HIV/AIDS. These partnerships, however, require better coordination, and need to harmonies their efforts. To achieve universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support for HIV/AIDS, the following recommendations are made: • • • • • HTC coverage is relatively low—compared to ART and PMTCT. Providerinitiated testing and counseling (PITC) should be expanded to all public health facilities of every country Countries should not lose the momentum of prevention, PMTCT and ART scale up and have to continue or even increase the level of efforts till Universal Access targets are fully achieved. Infant diagnosis and care & treatment for infected children should be expanded. Investment and strengthening of strategic information should be undertaken, particularly in methods of understanding the dynamics of specific country epidemics and its drivers Even countries with low prevalence rates or where success has been reported, should avoid complacency.