U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 11-day, 9-country tour of Africa, has finally ended and a majority of her tour was about highlighting the efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Countries were urged by Clinton to keep prevention programs their priority despite attempts being made to treat the disease and bring down the infections.

US supports a testing center in Malawi, a pharmacy distributing anti-retroviral treatment in South Africa, and a health clinic in Uganda and they were all visited by her.

Despite efforts being made to increase access to treatment and bringing down the infection rate, eastern and southern Africa remains disproportionately infected by HIV/AIDS. The steps take in South Africa to lower AIDS were praised by Clinton where Washington has invested $3.2 billion since 2004.

She said, "Thanks to the joint effort, millions have received treatment and testing and the rate of mother-to-child transmission has dropped dramatically. Now, when we look back at where South Africa was a decade ago, these numbers represent remarkable progress."

The treatment still needs to be scaled up as many are still affected and they need help.