I'm not trying to knock the Catholic Church, but its not as simple as saying "don't have sex" because if that was working the entire continent wouldn't have the highest infection rate in the world. See I think an approach like Uganda took makes the most sense "Uganda used a policy combining abstinence, fidelity and - only if necessary - the use of condoms, to achieve a significant reduction in the spread of HIV." And in the 1980's Uganda was riddled with AIDS but as it uses this system to educate and promote abstaining, committed sex, and when necessary using condoms, the Ugandan infection rate has dropped from 30% to 6%, not to say it isn't a problem anymore but there has been improvement. Obviously condoms are not the driving force on the war against AIDS but it just seems a blanket policy about not using condoms won't really help out Africans.
There are match making services provided by some of the governments to pair pair people with AIDS together, in hopes of reducing the chances they will spread the disease to others, but then when these couples have children they get the disease and spread it. Its a vicious cycle and I think anything that can be done to slow it at all is a good idea. Passing the disease through birth is a huge problem considering 60% of the people in Africa with AIDS are women.
I think the situation over there is pretty dire and whats really sad is that some Africans don't know what AIDS is, or they don't know they have it or they have unfounded beliefs about cures, like that sex with a virgin cures AIDS. In 2001 the world was shocked to find out that it was common for infants only a few months old to get raped by several different people in some areas of Africa because they believed it cured AIDS.
AIDS in Africa is spread mostly by heterosexual partners, and while the problem is getting better in 2007 an estamated 1.3 million people died in Africa from AIDS while 1.7 million became infected with HIV.
Honestly condoms are mostly used in more progressive countries, meaning that many Africans have never seen one. And abstaining because of health risks or spiritual beliefs would be the most effective way to curb transmission, but just like here in America abstinence only leaves gaps of uneducated people making decisions without knowing the consequences. I know the Catholic Church does work in Africa, as many churches do, and that's admirable, but if anything at all can put a dent in the spread of such a powerful disease than it should be used to its capacity. That means encouraging abstinence and condom use.
Here's a site from a group that works to prevent AIDS about the AIDS problem in Africa, its pretty sobering to read about this stuff. http://www.avert.org/aids-africa-questions.htm