According to the AIDS Epidemic Update 2009, the number of people living with HIV
worldwide is around 33.4 million.
Though 2.7 million people became newly infected with HIV in 2008 and two million died from AIDS-related illness, the heartening news is that this is still a decrease of 17 percent over the last eight years.
In sub-Saharan Africa, where the pandemic disease was the worst, there were 400,000 less infections in 2008, a 15 percent decline compared to 2001. Other dramatic reductions were found in East Asia and in South and Southeast Asia, where the new HIV infections fell by nearly 25 and 10 percent respectively.
Michel Sidibé, executive director of UNAIDS stated, "The good news is that we have evidence that the declines we are seeing are due, at least in part, to HIV prevention.
"However, the findings also show that prevention programming is often off the mark and that if we do a better job of getting resources and programs to where they will make most impact, quicker progress can be made and more lives saved."
Reasons for the decline
According to UNAIDS, prevention program involving sex education, HIV awareness campaigns, and distributing condoms have contributed to the downward trend of the HIV pandemic.
Another factor responsible for the drop in HIV infections is access to lifesaving treatments. According to the United Nations nearly four million people are now on life-saving AIDS drugs across the world, a tenfold increase in the last five years.
In addition, the new antiretroviral drug therapy prevents new infections of HIV to be transmitted from mothers to their babies at birth. Through this treatment, nearly 200,000 infant infections have been warded off since 2001.
The report also stated that the success in AIDS response is higher where HIV prevention and treatment programs have been combined with other health and social welfare services.
The changing face of AIDS
However, the report stated that the face of the AIDS epidemic was changing and the preventive measures were unable to keep up with the shift.
In the past, HIV infections in Eastern Europe and Central Asia were confined to intravenous drug abusers, homosexuals and prostitutes. Currently, the problem is rapidly affecting heterosexual couples and partners of people who inject drugs.
According to the WHO, the news from high income countries is not promising.
New infections in the United States have lingered around 50,000 a year since 2000. There are also signs that HIV incidence is rising again in Europe with fresh cases having doubled between 2004-2007.
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