In the 25th year since the naming of the HIV virus, the world's poorest continent has taken some strides in fighting it, but experts say that low funds and poor health systems and policies mean that far more needs to be done.

According to the latest UNAIDS report, 24.5 million people were living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa at the end of last year, some 64 percent of the world's total.

Some progress had been made over past years in the distribution of ARV treatment.

"At the end of 2005, about 800,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were on ARV treatment, which is an eight-fold increase since 2003," said Kevin De Cock, head of the World Health Organisation's HIV/AIDS department.

But improvements are not happening fast enough, he told AFP.

"The biggest obstacles in Africa include not only the issue of health systems, but the whole panoply of funding, fiscal management, expertise, resources, infrastructure and drug pricing," he said.

Other problems are erratic supplies -- which could create patient resistance to the drugs if there is a gap in treatment -- and the fact that in some areas people have to walk for miles to reach the nearest clinic, he said.

The WHO estimates that sub-Saharan Africa is short of some one million health workers.

In 2002, the southern African country of Botswana pioneered the roll out of ARVs on the continent, but the country's HIV prevalence rate is still 24.1 percent, according to the latest UNAIDS report.

Tuelo Mphele, head of the health ministry's ARV distribution programme, told AFP that 68,440 people were now on anti-retrovirals, compared with a target of 60,000 for 2006.

But he said challenges remained, including increasing the number of distribution points.

"For more clinics to start dispensing the drugs, we have to strengthen some of them and also improve staffing. As of June 2006, about five clinics are initiating and dispensing drugs while an additional seven are providing outreach services."

South Africa, the continent's richest country, has 5.5 million people infected with the virus.

Its free ARV roll out campaign, which followed long-standing demands and protests from lobby groups, only effectively started early 2004.

According to the latest government figures, a little more than 134,000 people now benefit from this treatment and some 80,000 others are on subsidised programmes run by non-governmental bodies and the private sector.

But outreach is inadequate and state controls on access to ARVs has made them unavailable for most people, said Nonkosi Khumalo, from AIDS lobby group Treatment Action Campaign.

"Close to about 700,000 need treatment now, and we are nowhere near these numbers or even the targets themselves," she said.

Glenda Gray, head of the peri-natal HIV research unit at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto said a major gap was the paperwork involved to access free ARV treatment.

"There is a six-month waiting list for new applicants," she said. "The lack of human capital is another problem even in urban areas. In Soweto, the programme can be stalled simply because there is no pharmacist."

Meanwhile in Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation where accurate health statistics are elusive, experts estimate that between 3.5 and five million people have contracted the HIV virus.

Professor Baba Tunde Osotimehin, chairman of the National Action Committee Against AIDS, recently said that around 100 ARV distribution and treatment outlets had been set up across the country, compared with 25 early last year.

In southern Africa, economically-ravaged Zimbabwe stands out as a success story with HIV prevalence rates in adults falling from 25 percent in 2002 to 20 percent in 2005, according to the latest UNAIDS report.

But it has only managed to put 32,000 people -- out of an estimated 300,000 requiring treatment -- on ARVs since the health ministry launched a free roll out programme in 2004, the National Aids Council says.

In Kenya, another of the few sub-Saharan countries where the prevalence level has declined, President Mwai Kibaki recently announced that public hospitals would no longer charge fees, equivalent to 1.40 dollars (1.10 euros), for ARVs.

Around 44,000 of the more than 200,000 Kenyan HIV/AIDS patients deemed to urgently need anti-retroviral therapy now receive the drugs, according to the health ministry.

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