NAIROBI, Dec 1 (AFP) - Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki said Monday that Kenya has lost 1.5 million people to AIDS since the disease was discovered in 1984, the presidential press service reported on World AIDS Day.

"It is estimated that today, 17 percent of our urban population and 13 percent of rural population are infected with the HIV virus, but considering the vast number of people who are yet to undergo the HIV/AIDS test, the situation could be much more alarming than available figures indicate," Kibaki warned.

"AIDS has brought about physical and emotional suffering to individuals and families and brought the biggest challenge of our times by depleting our stock of knowledge and re-allocation of family and national budgets," Kibaki said at the launch of constituency AIDS committees in Nairobi in the presence of World Health Organisation (WHO) Assistant Director General Jack Chow.

"Indeed, this disease could lead to the collapse of some economies in the next few generations and we, therefore, owe it to humanity to fight it relentlessly, all the time and not just sometimes," Kibaki said.

Kibaki noted that efforts to fight the disease in Kenya had began bearing fruit.

"The number of deaths associated with HIV/AIDS has dropped from 700 persons to around 300 per day, while at the same time the rate of prevalence has gone down from 13.1 percent in 2001 to 10.2 percent currently," Kibaki said.

"My call upon Kenyans, today, is to remain committed and steadfast, in the fight against AIDS. We should not celebrate over these modest gainst. We must not relax until the pandemic is virturally wiped out of our midst," he urged.

Earlier, WHO and UNAIDS appealed to the global community to double efforts to help provide anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to three million people living with AIDS in developing countries by end of 2005.

"This year three million people died of AIDS, people who could have been saved by ARV medication known to be effective, safe and affordable," Chow said during the official launch in Nairobi to mark World AIDS Day the 3 by 5 initiative to provide cheaper drugs to more AIDS sufferers.

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