A Step in the Right Direction is a Reason to Dance.

Researchers look to Zimbabwe for ways to reduce the HIV/AIDS infection rate elsewhere. There has been as steep decline in the infection rate from 1997 to 2007 and researchers are looking for the reasons why.

The examination of why HIV prevalence in the country fell from 29 percent in 1997 to 16 percent in 2007 was carried out by epidemiologists at Imperial College, London, and Harvard University School of Public Health, Cambridge, in partnership with Zimbabwe's Ministry of Health, the UN Population Fund and UNAIDS.

Though HIV prevalence remains high by African standards, the fall in HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe is the largest seen anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa, researchers said.

"Very few other countries around the world have seen reductions in HIV infection, and of all African nations Zimbabwe was thought least likely to see such a turnaround. This is why there was such an urgent need to understand its direct and underlying causes."

In diminishing conditions on nearly every level, Zimbabwe has made huge strides in reducing the infection rate -- think of what this could mean for other countries in similar situations...what hope!!

-The Happy Bag Elves