JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -- Money is starting to flow in to fight AIDS in Africa, but many countries have far too few health workers and face a crippling shortage of basic infrastructure.

AIDS prevention and treatment are being stymied by economic upheaval, civil war, a lack of hospitals and clinics, and even by neglected or nonexistent roads.

In sub-Saharan Africa around 27 million people are infected with HIV out of an estimated global tally of 40 million, according to UN estimates.

Across the continent, AIDS activists, health workers, government officials and researchers say more staff and facilities such as clinics are needed to counter the pandemic, which is estimated to have killed 2.3 million Africans this year and to have created 11 million orphans south of the Sahara.

South Africa, which has the world's highest number of HIV-positive citizens -- 5.3 million -- announced last week that some 46 million dollars (38 million euros) would be allocated for the rest of the fiscal year -- till March 31 -- to fight the disease.

The government said some 11 million dollars would be used for recruiting new healthcare staff, while 3.2 million would go for health system upgrades.

"The budget that has been announced is excellent," said Nathan Geffen, a spokesman for the influential AIDS lobby group, the Treatment Action Campaign.

"But recruitment and training is going too slowly. We are going to have to put a lot more doctors and nurses on the ground," Geffen told AFP.

South Africa is also facing a brain drain: Hundreds of doctors and nurses have left the country, lured by more lucrative salaries, lack of job satisfaction and perceived risks involved in dealing with patients infected with HIV/AIDS.