DAKAR, 9 August 2006 - Senegal lost no time in mobilising after HIV/AIDS first appeared in the 1980s, and is now regarded as Africa's pioneer in the fight against the scourge with its low prevalence rates the envy of many.

In 1986, as soon as the first HIV cases were registered, Senegal quickly set up a national task force devoted to fighting the disease in this country of 10 million inhabitants, 90 per cent of who are Muslim.

Today the West African country boasts of one the lowest prevalence rates of 0.7 per cent, according to 2005 statistics released by UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS. Senegal is now cited as among the model examples in the fight against the pandemic on the continent where rates are at time over the 20 per cent mark.

"The commitment and the determination of the politicians and the civic society were immediate," said Magatte Mbodj, the head of the National Alliance Against AIDS (ANCS), an active non-governmental organisation in the anti-AIDS drive in the country.

With the "appearence of the disease everyone got involved", she said, mounting information campaigns on prevention and on medical and home-based care of patients. "Very early, the international partners brought in determined support," she said, citing in particular the European Union, France, the United Nations Development Programme , United States Agency for International Development, the World Bank and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, a public-private partnership.

"The response was very early and was multi-sectoral in nature, which was not the case in the majority of other African countries," concurred Saer Maty Ba, the UNAIDS representative in Senegal.

Moreover, "the strategy against the disease was built on the plinth of fighting and prevention of sexually transmitted infections already in existence since the 1970s," said doctor Abdoulaye Wade, head of the national department fighting HIV/AIDS in the ministry of Health. Another determining factor according to Mbodj is that "Senegal is one of the first countries which decided to take charge of its patients, giving free antiretrovirals since 2000."

"The situation is really satisfactory," said Ba, who also believes that most importantly the geographical zones of the infection concentration and the majority of the infected population have been identified" allowing a better response.

The towns of Tambacounda and Kolda in the southeast, Matam in the east and southern Ziguinchor are the worst affected by the virus, which is found mainly in prostitutes and homosexual males, he said. But Ba stressed the need to improve the assistance to AIDS patients and those infected with the virus who have to bear the societal stigma and discrimination, with which the country is still struggling.

The stigma of AIDS has resulted in some infected people being rejected by their families. Wade, however, said the country has "progressed a lot" in recent years and is moving "towards less stigmatisation", thanks to the information campaigns.