Girma, who is also chairman of the national HIV/AIDS prevention and control council, said the number of beneficiaries of free provision of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs has now reached about 96,000 from only 900 two years ago.

Speaking at the ninth conference of the National HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Council held at National Palace on Saturday, President Girma said the public have widely been involved in the HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

Promising results have been obtained in care and support as well as prevention activities, he added.

President Girma said encouraging results were witnessed in the efforts made to increase the number of people receiving voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service and beneficiaries of free provision of ARV drugs by launching the Millennium anti-HIV/AIDS campaign.

Director of the national HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office, Dr. Betru Tekle said in his report that a strategy aimed at involving public at the grass root level in the activities of combating the pandemic was put in place.

The number of VCT centers has dramatically been increasing each year, Dr Betru said, and added that some 230 new VCT centers were opened during the current year alone.

Accordingly, the number of people who received VCT service in 1999 E.C has reached to 1.5 million, which showed a three-fold growth compared to that of the preceding year. The number of condoms distributed during the year has reached to 70 million.

An estimated 75,420 expectant mothers are living with HIV/AIDS while over 7,000 of them got Prevention of Mother-To-Child-Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS service.

The Director on the occasion called on all sectoral offices to join hands in the anti-HIV/AIDS campaign by establishing AIDS fund, allocating budget and designing HIV/AIDS policy.

Senior government officials and representatives of various non-governmental organizations were converged at the conference that deliberated on the report.

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