ADDIS ABABA, Dec 3 (AFP) - African decision-makers must take drastic steps after failing to face up fast enough to the AIDS epidemic now affecting 25.3 million people in sub-Saharan countries, a senior UN official said Saturday.

"In an environment of ignorance and poverty, it makes it difficult to tackle this problem and there was little commitment for action at the very early stages," K.Y. Amoako, executive director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said here.

Amoako, a Ghanaian, was speaking ahead of Sunday's opening of a conference among 1,500 African decision-makers, AIDS experts and development partners who were gathering in the Ethiopian capital to discuss ways to tackle the disease.

The ECA has cited discrimination and social stigmatisation regarding people living with AIDS as two main obstacles to fighting the epidemic, in a report it will present to the second African Development Forum, due to start in the afternoon and continue until Thursday.

Apart from the lack of funds and adequate health care to help people with AIDS or HIV, the report notes how in some countries the disease is regarded on religious grounds as a punishment for sins, while people living with the virus risk losing their jobs, harassment, expulsion from their communities and sometimes blind violence.

"Once the HIV/AIDS infection rate reaches three or four percent (of the population)," Amoako said at a press conference, "if you don't do something dramatic about it, then very soon you are in the range of eight and nine percent, sometimes 20 percent."

"So early action is important and that's what we failed to do," he added.

However, the ECA chief also noted positive developments, such as the stabilisation of the rate of AIDS in countries such as Uganda and Senegal.

He stressed that "leadership is important, commitment is important, and the ability to talk about love and sex and the taboos of our society."

"There is some good news. I see many many leaders now openly coming to the forefront on this, speaking about it," Amoako said.

"We need to reinforce that, to support it," he added.

Asked about a vaccine, Amoako considered that "some progress has been made, but it is not something that under the best of circumstances would be available for the next 10 years."

"We just need to focus on prevention and care," he stressed.

In concrete terms, the ECA report also recommends international information networking and a greater involvement of people living with AIDS, as well as youth workers, in political and health programmes to tackle the spread of HIV.

Given the prohibitive costs of drugs -- well beyond the reach of many Africans -- the UN agency proposes that the financing of medical treatment be be shared among governments, employers and donor nations.

Its report also suggests legal measures specifically to protect people living with AIDS against discrimination regarding housing, labour and education.

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