>WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: The global Aids epidemic is far from over, but the signs are that it has levelled off, with more people getting life-extending drugs and the number of new HIV infections falling in many places, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.
Significantly, the number of people killed by Aids worldwide edged down for a second straight year last year - after rising for more than two decades, Geneva-based UNAids said.
Dr Paul Zeitz, executive director of Washington-based activist group Global Aids Alliance, said the report showed that the big increase in spending on prevention and treatment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere had borne results.
Global Aids deaths numbered about two million last year, down from 2.1 million in 2006, UNAids said. Aids deaths peaked in 2005 at 2.2 million after a steady climb since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s.
"A six-fold increase in financing for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries from 2001 to 2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as gains in lowering the number of Aids deaths and preventing new infections are apparent in
many countries," stated the report.
"Progress remains uneven...underscoring the need for intensified action to move towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support," the report read. Last year about 33 million people were infected with HIV, UNAids said.
The total number of people living with HIV infections is inching higher as more people in hard-hit regions like sub-Saharan Africa - with two-thirds of all global cases - receive drugs that help them live longer, the report showed.
New HIV infection rates were basically the same last year as in 2006 - about 2.7 million people, with a very small increase last year over the previous year, the agency said.
The report cited a jump in the number of people receiving Aids drugs in low- and middle-income countries, numbering about three million. But "there are still five new infections for every two people who are newly added on treatment", said Dr Paul De Lay of UNAids. WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES: The global Aids epidemic is far from over, but the signs are that it has levelled off, with more people getting life-extending drugs and the number of new HIV infections falling in many places, a United Nations agency said on Tuesday.
Significantly, the number of people killed by Aids worldwide edged down for a second straight year last year - after rising for more than two decades, Geneva-based UNAids said.
Dr Paul Zeitz, executive director of Washington-based activist group Global Aids Alliance, said the report showed that the big increase in spending on prevention and treatment programmes in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere had borne results.
Global Aids deaths numbered about two million last year, down from 2.1 million in 2006, UNAids said. Aids deaths peaked in 2005 at 2.2 million after a steady climb since the disease was first identified in the early 1980s.
"A six-fold increase in financing for HIV programs in low- and middle-income countries from 2001 to 2007 is beginning to bear fruit, as gains in lowering the number of Aids deaths and preventing new infections are apparent in
many countries," stated the report.
"Progress remains uneven...underscoring the need for intensified action to move towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support," the report read. Last year about 33 million people were infected with HIV, UNAids said.
The total number of people living with HIV infections is inching higher as more people in hard-hit regions like sub-Saharan Africa - with two-thirds of all global cases - receive drugs that help them live longer, the report showed.
New HIV infection rates were basically the same last year as in 2006 - about 2.7 million people, with a very small increase last year over the previous year, the agency said.
The report cited a jump in the number of people receiving Aids drugs in low- and middle-income countries, numbering about three million. But "there are still five new infections for every two people who are newly added on treatment", said Dr Paul De Lay of UNAids. -- REUTERS
