New York, NY (BBN)- While there have been significant gains in preventing new HIV infections in different countries, the epidemic is far from over in any part of the world, a United Nations report said.
The 2008 report on the global AIDS epidemic, produced by the Joint UN Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), released on Tuesday, is the most comprehensive review of the epidemic to date with 147 countries reporting data on HIV.
The report also recommended that the combined efforts of governments, civil society and affected communities among other things can make a difference in saving lives.
Besides, the percentage of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission rose from 14 per cent to 33 per cent from 2005 to 2007.
The number of new infections among children fell from 410,000 to 370,000 in the same period, the new report noted.
“The overall finding of the report is that we’ve made enormous progress, that there are real results,” UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot told reports while launching the report in New York, according to a U.N. press statement.
The report said that while the number of new HIV infections has declined from 3 million in 2001 to 2.7 million in 2007, the rates of infection are rising in many countries such as China, Indonesia, Kenya and Russia.
There are now an estimated 33 million people living with HIV worldwide, with 2 million estimated to have died from AIDS last year. Also, AIDS continues to be the leading cause of death in Africa, the report added.
BBN/SI/SI/AD-July08-9.44AM