OUAGADOUGOU, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has launched a region-wide campaign with the aim of creating awareness on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, three of the most devastating pandemics in the region, official sources have said.

    The campaign, the latest in a series of regional actions against the three diseases, was launched during a meeting in Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso's second largest city, which is located 365 km to the west of the capital Ouagadougou, on Tuesday.

    The official launch of the sub-regional campaign, which is expected to sensitize the public on the existence, protection and treatment against the diseases, was attended by thirty health experts, parliamentarians and officials from the ECOWAS.

    Organized by the ECOWAS Parliamentary Commission on Health and Social Services in collaboration with the West African Health Organization (WAHO), the initiative is scheduled to specifically target vulnerable communities living in the border regions between Burkina Faso and Mali

    "The main aim is to mobilize and to alert the target populations in order to get them to organize themselves to fight these pandemics, which are threatening to devastate our region," one of the participants at the meeting was saying.

    During the 96-hour meeting, regional parliamentarians as well as other participants were expected to compare their experiences to those of health experts and also discuss the appropriate approaches to be adopted in order to improve awareness and advocacy for the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

    The meeting will also offer the participants an excellent opportunity, within the framework of the awareness and advocacy campaign, to adopt a common strategy to help the region to fight against AIDS and tuberculosis more effectively, said one of the participants.

    According to official statistics from the UNAIDS, the AIDS pandemic kills more or less than 3 million people per year with most of the victims being poor people, a majority of them living in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Presently, according to the same sources, there are between 34 and 42 million people living with HIV across the world, of which the two-thirds are found in African countries to the south of the Saharan desert.

    Recalling that AIDS has become a priority issue for African public health systems, Yaya Sangare, chairman of the ECOWAS parliamentary commission, welcomed the efforts of the various member states in tackling the disease, saying that there was a great determination on the part of the government.

    "African countries have put the fight against the AIDS scourge among their top priorities," said Sangare, who nevertheless called for increased efforts to ensure that the devastating effects of the disease were minimized.

    "We need a stronger involvement of actors and targets for comprehensive care for people infected and/or affected by AIDS and tuberculosis and a successful prevention strategy," he said, adding that this was the duty of everyone and not only the governments of the day.

    According to Sangare, the important thing currently was to establish a framework for standardizing the efforts of the various member states to combat the scourge and its effects, help disseminate the available knowledge about the disease and help countries that were lagging behind in the fight.

    In order to do so, the senior ECOWAS official called on regional governments to make efforts to put in place a common strategy capable of reducing the spread of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria across the West Africa sub-region.

    "The fight against AIDS will only be won when our strategies will actively seek to clarify all practices and policies that are at play," he said, nevertheless adding that governments could not be left alone in the fight.

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the three diseases, AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, are threatening to roll back gains that have been made by the African continent, notably in the eradication of poverty, but also in the realization of the Millennium Development Goals.